When I was walking on a red sand street in a remote mountain village in Tanzania in 2013, I felt I found the perfect job for me. I was supporting a NGO on their long-distance adoption programme aimed at guaranteeing access to education for kids living in those remote areas.
As a graduate in International Relations and International Law, all I was looking for in a job was the chance to make a positive contributions to society and to learn about different topics and geographies. I discovered through a friend that I could find this at McKinsey. As a manager for another consulting firm, he explained to me how McKinsey tends to be more involved than other firms in the public and social sectors.
Meaningful work
As I hit my first anniversary at McKinsey, I reflected and smiled, as I have never imagined a private sector firm would give me such a great sense of meaning and purpose.
I joined our Doha office in late June 2019, where I was welcomed by 20 beautiful people who soon became my family. Since then, I have been working on different projects: an IT merger in upstream oil and gas, the identification and development of country-wide capital projects in the Middle East, a design of risk policy in the oil and gas sector, and a cost transformation for a large petrochemical company.
My favourite engagement, however, has been supporting a client in organizing a national hackathon to find and fund solutions to COVID-19 challenges. In only 10 days, we organized the virtual event, attracted 1,500 applications (300% more than the client usually got), and identified 10 concrete solutions to help resolve some challenges raised by the pandemic.
This is what I love about McKinsey:
- Whatever the topic or the challenge, we are on the frontline to help
- The work we do is meaningful and drives changes that matter
- We can create a positive impact on society and respond to wider public purpose
At my best
Through McKinsey, I get to shape my path. Passionate about languages and education, I helped develop a region-wide Arabic learning programme for my colleagues and the first case competition for university students in the Middle East. I’m now excited to get more involved with Middle East office Women’s group to help create and sustain a positive work environment with equal representation and empowerment in the local community.