As with life, education is a journey. Often, we set off on one route only to find ourselves on a different path. This holds particularly true for people's working lives. One such example is Old Kellettonains Wei Chien Low (OK 2015-2018). When Wei Chien left Kellett, he headed for UCL to study Chemistry. He pursued that path successfully, but it's not the field of Chemistry where Wei Chien ended up working. Instead, he is a Business Consultant at Ernst & Young in Hong Kong.

Recently, Ms Hills caught up with Wei Chien via LinkedIn to ask him to reflect on his time at Kellett, UCL, and his current role. Here are his reflections.

“I found my university life very enjoyable but also challenging academically. London was a great city for making friends, especially since UCL is strategically located in central London, making it easier to commute. UCL was also great for exploring my interests outside of school. It was easy to start new hobbies and try out something new every few weeks. The university had a community for everything, ranging from sports to career and networking events. Unfortunately, my experience at the UCL campus and joining in-person societies was cut short due to COVID-19 in 2020.”

“Currently, I work as a business consultant at Ernst & Young (EY), one of the Big 4 accounting firms. As a consultant, my role involves interviewing process owners (representatives from client banks or insurance companies) to fully understand and document current business process flows, identifying weak points or improving the current process. My other responsibilities include constructing detailed dashboards and presentations to report and plan the progress of the project to senior management and project sponsors from the client side. There are many more roles that I can take up depending on the project I am assigned to as a consultant, but these are the main responsibilities I have taken up during my time at EY.”

I asked Wei Chien about the course his academic and professional life has taken. He reflected on it and offered some tips and pointers to fellow Alumni:

“My journey to get into my role as a business consultant from a Chemistry degree was not simple, and I would suggest studying a degree related to the industry you want to consult in if you already know this is a career path you would like to pursue. I only decided to search for a job as a consultant well into my Chemistry degree and proceeded to gather as many qualifications and learn as much as possible related to the industry to secure a job here. Being a consultant also requires you to be extremely adaptable; each new project assigned could mean learning completely new skills or sometimes even a different industry altogether. You will need to be quick at picking up new concepts and learning new skills to thrive in this industry. My advice to those who are interested in becoming a business consultant is to be open to taking up new challenges and always aim to learn new skills that are sought after in the job market.”

As a former teacher and the Founding Deputy Head at Kellett Senior School, I have always been keen to find out students’ reflections on their time at Kellett and what they have taken from that part of their academic journey. Wei Chien had this to say:

“I think my most memorable times at Kellett would be karting down the hill with my friends at the Luge track during our New Zealand school trip in Sixth form and also my English Literature classes with Miss Hills, analyzing quotes from 'Of Mice and Men'!

I think my biggest life lesson from Kellett was to not worry about my future so much and just keep my head down and try to do the best I can at whatever is thrown at me. I found myself worrying about everything in school: if I would do well in IGCSE, get into a good university, get a job, etc. Only later did I realize things didn’t turn out so bad and that I should have just trusted myself and kept doing what I enjoyed and did the best I could. I think my love of learning and confidence in myself was developed in Kellett and stayed with me until now. I hope to keep it with me as I develop into my professional career, and I believe it is the character I developed in Kellett that has brought me to where I am now.”

If you would like to know more about Wei Chien’s journey or find out more about life at UCL or Ernst & Young, sign up for the Kellett Alumni group and connect with him there.

Below are some pictures of Wei Chien’s from his time at school (login to view).