Similar to DoorDash and Google’s CEOs, the $7.6 billion Informatica leader is a McKinsey alumnus—he says being ‘pushed around’ by smart consultants helped him grow

The consulting giant not only boasts a reputation for rewarding its star employees with —it’s also a well-recognized stepping stone to the C-suite. Wander through its office halls, and you’ll likely cross paths with a budding 500 CEO.

Similar to ’s and ’s , , the CEO of $7.6 billion firm , worked at after earning his MBA. Though the experience was daunting and highly rigorous, it set him up to thrive in his current role as chief executive.

“McKinsey was a dream job for me when I was in business school, partly because I was an engineer before that,” Walia tells . “And I thought, ‘Look, what an incredible place to learn about business in the broadest possible way—and, of course, the most intense way.’”

Walia spent nearly five years at the consulting company as a senior engagement manager. He took on this role after two stints in management and tech: right after graduating with his undergraduate degree, the entrepreneur served as a senior officer for Indian manufacturer , overseeing 20,000 employees at just 22 years old.

Walia then spent two years as a senior engineer at $78 billion business Technologies before moving into leadership. He attended , another training hub for top executives, and joined McKinsey with his MBA in hand. This experience prepared him to step into Informatica’s top role in 2020, but it was far from easy.

“At McKinsey, you’re really pushed into difficult situations… You always need a clear, analytical mindset to distill problems down to their core. That’s a skill you learn, and it’s the hardest part of a big job,” Walia continues. “You become a better person by being pushed by the environment of so many other smart people.”

Facing criticism and imposter syndrome—but growing as a future CEO

, no matter their title or industry, will doubt their professional skills at some point in their careers. Walia noticed that even the sharpest business minds second-guess themselves while working at McKinsey.

“I always joke that everyone there feels like an imposter, because you’re next to another smart person. So you push yourself, and you learn from everybody,” the Informatica CEO says.

But McKinsey employees don’t have time to dwell on how they measure up to their peers. Walia says he was placed in “complex environments” with 100 moving parts; emerging business leaders are trained to focus on what truly matters and find the core of the issue. Once the problem is clear, he says McKinsey encourages “hypothesis-driven problem-solving” to fix it—even if it’s ambiguous, new, or has no “right answer.” He constantly tested himself on the job, having to validate every decision he made. His McKinsey peers didn’t hold back with their critiques, and Walia absorbed all of it.

“It’s a very learning-focused culture. You’re constantly learning, and you get a tremendous amount of feedback that helps you improve all the time,” Walia explains. “I always say, ‘Feedback is a gift.’ It’s not to tell you what you’re not doing right—it should tell you what you could do better. Those are the key things from my McKinsey experience that have helped me grow over time.”

Why McKinsey is the biggest incubator of 500 CEOs

McKinsey has a reputation as a standout employer for nurturing future business leaders. After all, the consulting giant has produced more 500 CEOs than any other organization in the world.

Aside from Walia, Pichai, and Xu, other notable alumni include leader and chief executive , who have all worked at the consulting firm. According to editor Ruth Umoh, the company has helped catapult 18 sitting 500 CEOs and 28 global CEOs to the top job.

A dozen former and current McKinsey alumni told Umoh that the firm’s strategy is intentional and, echoing Amit’s experience, incredibly rigorous. The company rotates its staff through industries, geographies, and departments, purposefully putting them out of their comfort zone. McKinsey also fosters a culture of constructive disagreement, where all employees—reguardless of seniority—have their assumptions and strategies challenged.

“You start to believe that more is possible,” Liz Segel, a senior partner at McKinsey, last year. “You build pattern recognition from helping a client do something they didn’t think was even achievable—and that builds confidence you carry forever.”