Life after Patana

LIFE AFTER PATANA Cultivating a Diversity-focused Mindset

Sudthatada (Kate) Wattanavekin, Graduating Class of 2016

Kate spent her formative years at Bangkok Patana School, starting in Year 5, where she feels her exposure to the value of diversity and the importance of time management were the most meaningful lessons she learned.

“It is no secret that Bangkok Patana has a highly diverse environment, and for that, I am extremely appreciative. Having the chance to spend eight formative years of my childhood there I learned early on in life that not everyone will think like you, communicate like you, or interpret information the way you do. More importantly, I learned to not view diversity as a difficulty that must be “solved” by standardising differences, but rather as an opportunity to embrace and incorporate differences while seeking out valuable overlaps. Bangkok Patana has helped form a mindset that I am proud to have, a mindset in which I look forward to learning something from everyone, regardless of their race, age, gender, upbringing, etc. This mindset has helped me in everything I do, such as collaborating during group projects, meeting new friends and colleagues, seeking out jobs in unfamiliar fields and becoming a preorientation leader at university to bring together over one hundred freshmen from all types of backgrounds.”

“Beyond diversity, Bangkok Patana offers an impressively wide range of activities for students to get involved with outside of the classroom. I feel very fortunate to have attended a school in which I had the opportunity to try so many new activities and engage in many special adventures, all of them broadening my perspective about others and the world.”

“I learned to effectively manage my time in order to excel in all of my involvements while finding the right work-life balance. Admittedly, it was not easy to manage my time among studying as an (I)GCSE/IB student, attending all training sessions as an athlete (I was often part of two teams each term), taking guitar and Khim lessons during the weekends, traveling for Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, and finding time to relax with my family and socialise with friends. However, I always had great support from the Patana faculty (thank you teachers, career counselors, and coaches), which allowed me to practice managing my time all the while enjoying all my commitments with the right balance.”

“Even now, I still enjoy staying active and broadening my horizons. For example, inspired by my Duke of Edinburgh trek to Everest Base Camp in 2014, I decided to participate in a venture to Antarctica last January, where we trekked for five days on King George Island. I can whole-heartedly say that without the constant encouragement at Bangkok Patana to try new activities and the valuable chance to practice time-management, I would not be where I am today.

At the time of my graduation at Bangkok Patana, I would be lying if I said I knew exactly which career I wanted to pursue in the future. However, growing up surrounded by incredibly strong and driven women in business, such as my grandmother and mother, I aspired to follow in their footsteps. So, what I did know at the time of my graduation was that I was determined to strengthen my practical skills, both soft and hard ones, to effectively become the best leader in business that I can be.

I chose to attend Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the few leading business schools in the world that offers an undergraduate program. There, I concentrated in Finance, Behavioural Economics, and Business Analytics, while minoring in Consumer Psychology. When it came time to apply for internships, I sought out opportunities that would challenge me to take on a lot of responsibility early on in my career and create real-world impact for businesses in different industries. Consequently, for the summers after my second and third year at university, I pursued internships in investment banking, first in Bangkok and later in New York.

During my second investment banking internship I learned that I am intrigued by the drivers and opportunities behind the process of value-creation for a business and wanted to continue to be a part of those critical decisions. However, I also noticed that I consistently found myself thinking about what the company could do after they had been acquired or how they could increase their value going forward once the financial “match-making” process was over. As a result, I was particularly excited when I learned about the opportunity at McKinsey & Company in New York as a Business Analyst within the Strategy and Corporate Finance practice. The Strategy and Corporate Finance practice at McKinsey provides a unique combination of strategic, financial and transactional advisory services. I am excited to be able to create meaningful impact for clients across various industries not only from a financial match-maker mergers and acquisitions lens, but also from a broader, strategic perspective.