What are you doing now?
I recently left Stripe to explore some of my other passions like climate change, politics, and finding the best pain au chocolat in San Francisco. I joined Stripe in 2013 when the company had 50 employees and spent six, wonderful years there in multiple roles, including heading the Business Operations team and leading the product development of machine learning solutions for fraud prevention.
What do you miss most about your BA days?
The late–night sushi was always good. In all seriousness, though, it’s awesome to work with a group of people who are racing toward the same goal for a condensed period of time. It was fun to learn a lot about an area quickly, and then move on to the next challenge a few months later.
What do you miss least about your BA days?
Also the late–night sushi.
What skills you learned as BA do you still use today?
Excel, modeling, and building common data sense. Having seen how useful these skills are in the world outside of McKinsey, I wish I’d spent even more time working on these skills when I was at the firm. The BA role offers a special combination of excellent training– through formal classroom instruction and direct mentorship from colleagues–and real–life applications of these skills at clients. If I’m reviewing the resume of a former McKinsey BA, I immediately am confident that the person will have strong data skills.
What has your BA class done recently to stay in touch?
I see a good number of my classmates, several of whom have become dear friends. We haven’t done anything formally as a class in a while, but when we get together it’s always a good time.