From Rejection to Nestlé: How Goh Kenjie Reclaimed Her Future

There’s a kind of pressure that clings to your twenties; the pressure to have a plan, to move fast, to make the right decisions before time runs out. But for most people, that pressure collides with something else entirely: the unpredictability of life.

Kenjie Goh is now based in Barcelona, working as an internal auditor with Nestlé. Her job takes her across countries and markets, helping the company assess how each part of the business operates and identify areas for improvement. It’s a role that demands perspective, confidence, and the ability to adapt quickly.

Her journey isn’t about having it all figured out, but learning how to move forward, especially when the way ahead feels uncertain.

From Dropshipping to Debits and Credits

Kenjie’s early interests leaned more towards fashion and even veterinary science, until an unexpected side hustle in her teens reshaped everything. At 14, a classmate introduced her to the idea of dropshipping. Intrigued by the possibility of earning real money, she started sourcing items from Taobao and selling them through a curated Instagram page.

She handled orders, managed express deliveries for a fee, and served a niche community of mostly classmates and friends. She learned to price for profit, negotiate with suppliers, and build a brand from scratch. At the time, she didn’t have the language to describe what she was doing, but her skill set was forming.

Her mother was the one who connected the dots. “You’re basically running a business.”

As she moved through secondary school, Kenjie began to gravitate towards commerce subjects. When she tried out chemistry and physics during a trial tuition session, nothing clicked. But accounting felt different. “It came naturally to me,” she said. “It made sense quickly; the dropshipping experience helped for sure.”

The dropshipping venture would continue through to Form 5, but by the time she sat for SPM, her focus had shifted from running an informal business to pursuing a more structured path in accounting. Her grandfather had been a chartered accountant, and several relatives worked in the finance sector. For the first time, she could see a path beginning to take shape.

Taking the Fast Lane Abroad

After SPM, Kenjie enrolled in the AUSMAT programme at Sunway College, a decision shaped more by pragmatism than anything else. Her mother had long encouraged both Kenjie and her brother to pursue their degrees overseas, believing that the experience would make a lasting difference. AUSMAT offered a faster route than A-Levels, and with her brother already in Australia, the path seemed straightforward enough.

She completed one year at Monash University Malaysia before transferring to the Melbourne campus. At the time, she didn’t fully understand what the overseas push was all about. It felt like something she was supposed to do, not necessarily something she wanted. That understanding came later, during the long grocery runs, the confusing admin tasks, and the office meetings where she struggled to understand what anyone was saying.

“I didn’t even know what a ‘stat dec’ was,” she said. “I thought it meant a statistics deck, but it meant statutory declaration.”

Tribe, Rejection, and the EY Turnaround

While peers secured internships by their second year, Kenjie faced a wall of rejections. Her GPA had dipped during the COVID-19 pandemic, and every Big Four firm had turned her down. “I was a straight-A student in high school, and now, I was struggling even to land an interview,” she said.

The only offer she received was from Tribe Boxing, a boutique gym in Malaysia. Though a gym wasn’t a conventional choice for an accounting student, the experience revived her confidence. She pitched ideas, managed operations, and for the first time in a while, felt valued. “They trusted me. It made me feel like I had something to offer.”

After her internship, Kenjie finally made the move to Australia to complete her final year at Monash. With a renewed sense of focus, she worked to improve her academic performance and rebuild her confidence. In early 2022, she came across a newsletter from the Monash Accounting Association mentioning EY’s graduate programme. On a whim, she applied.

What followed was a rollercoaster: an interview, a rejection email, and then a phone call revealing the rejection had been sent by mistake. She got the job. Motivated to prepare, she joined 180 Degrees Consulting, supporting a social enterprise helping the homeless in Melbourne.

Between consulting, part-time work, taekwondo, dance society, and residential duties, her final year was packed. As exhausting as that period was, it reminded her what she was capable of.

A Grad Job and a Visa Wall

Kenjie started her graduate role at EY Melbourne in February 2023. It was a significant milestone not necessarily just because of the brand name, but because of what the situation represented. She had come back from rejection, self-doubt, and a bruised academic record, and was finally stepping into the professional world she had worked so hard for.

She spent two years learning the ropes of consulting, handling internal risk assessments and navigating high-pressure projects with major clients. The pace was intense, but she was finally in her element. “I loved the structure, the training, the access to people who knew what they were doing,” she said.

She had expected to spend at least a few more years in Australia, but towards the end of her contract, she was hit with a surprise: her visa wasn’t going to be renewed. The team wanted to keep her on, but the sponsorship just wasn’t possible. Without a long-term work visa, her time in Australia had run out.

Kenjie had to pack her bags and return to Malaysia.

It felt like a step backwards. All her friends were progressing in their careers overseas, while she was suddenly back at square one. “It was hard to process,” she said. “There was this sense of, why is this happening again?”

Losing Her Rhythm, Finding Her Way

Even before she landed back in Malaysia, Kenjie was already dreading it. The thought of returning home without a job, after working so hard to build a life in Australia, felt like a defeat.

That fear weighed heavily on her final weeks in Melbourne. Her routine had already unravelled, and her confidence was wearing thin. She started questioning whether all the effort had been worth it.

But a conversation with a friend cracked something open. “They asked me why I was only looking in Australia or Malaysia,” she recalled. “And I didn’t have a good answer.”

That question planted the seed. She began applying internationally: a slow and often unrewarding process. “I was just so scared. I didn’t want to go back to Malaysia and feel like I’d failed.” But then, an unexpected email arrived: she had made it to the final stage of Nestlé’s selection process. And not just any final stage. She was flown to Spain for the final interviews.

“It felt surreal. I was like, is this really happening?” The interviews were intense, but so was the sense of possibility. Nestlé was a name she had grown up seeing on supermarket shelves, and now here she was, presenting herself not just as a candidate, but as someone with something real to offer.

By the time she returned to Malaysia, things were already in motion. But internally, she still had catching up to do. “I was in a weird place. I had the job, but I hadn’t processed anything.” The months leading up to her departure became a time to reset, to rebuild discipline slowly, reconnect with herself, and prepare for a new chapter.

Spain, Self-Discipline, and the Rebuilding Year

Kenjie’s role at Nestlé is part of a global internal audit programme. While she’s officially based in Spain, the role involves international travel and exposure to operations, compliance, and risk across different markets.

Currently, she’s just a few months into the job, learning the ropes in anticipation of audit season. This transition period has left her in a strange in-between state: far from home, adjusting to a new culture, and waiting for the real work to begin.

It’s not the hustle she’s used to. After years of moving fast and pushing herself through deadlines and deliverables, Kenjie is learning to navigate slower days and to make peace with uncertainty. “I think it’s good for me,” she said. “For once, I have time to breathe, to work on myself, to learn without that survival pressure.”

Her days now include strength training, Spanish classes, and cooking her own meals, all of which have helped her regain a sense of structure and intentionality. “I feel like I’m slowly becoming the version of myself I used to be proud of,” she said.

It’s not just a new job in a new country. It’s a year of rebuilding and learning to live at a different rhythm: to trust that growth doesn’t always have to be loud to be meaningful.