Chris chatted with David Siap, Associate at McKinsey & Company. David is an experienced business and technology professional with experience in energy, climate, and consulting. At Haas, David was part of many programs, including several MBA challenges and Berkeley StEP, the Student Entrepreneurship Program.

David grew up in an undocumented immigrant Filipino family, which helped shape his relationship with change and challenges. It made him good and comfortable with rolling with the punches, dealing with ambiguity, and challenging himself.

In this episode, he talked about his experiences taking up different majors in his undergrad, early professional career, and grad school at UC Davis.

He then shared his time at a prestigious place after grad school, Berkeley Lab, going to business school right after, and eventually joining McKinsey.

Episode Quotes: 

Pivoting from wind energy to climate tech

"I want to understand why things are the way they are and how can I impact people. And I thought that, at that time, it seemed clear to me that climate change would be one of the biggest challenges of our generation. And I wanted to be there. I was already working on a climate-adjacent automotive product, but I wanted to be at the bleeding edge of the tech. And so, that's why I ended up pivoting."

During his time at The Berkeley Lab

"It was a really great time. I landed there and felt like, wow, everybody is so crazy smart, so much more than me. There's a Ph.D. from MIT sitting next to me. On the other side, there's a Harvard Ph.D. in physics. There's a Nobel Prize winner down the hall. It was a really crazy place to be. And it was great to be surrounded by folks who were so smart and focused on something that was a net positive for society. Everybody there was working on climate change when presumably a lot of these folks could have been out conquering the world and making so much more money than you make at a national lab. But they were there, I think, because they wanted to make the world a better place."

On pivoting into consulting

"I was starting to see this common thread. These people are in leadership positions, and they have X, Y, and Z skills that they're good at. And those are things that I want to be good at, essentially. And so, that's when McKinsey or the consulting space became more and more real to me. I realized the skills that you can develop in the space. And I was coming initially from a growth mindset as well. And so, it felt natural to extend the MBA. I've heard other people put it by going to a place like McKinsey, I can extend the MBA work on these skills that I want to develop. And I would actually get paid for it."

David's piece of advice for everyone

"Trust the process and follow your passion."

Show Links:

• LinkedIn
• Berkeley Lab

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