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Early-career BioPharma professional looking to move into management consulting

by | Feb 25, 2016 | Business, career, consulting, management consulting, transition | 0 comments

The email below was sent by a young lady who works in BioPharma and wants to transition over to management consulting. She doesn’t have any business background, so she wondering if there is a way to make the change despite that.

Check out my advice for her below.

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SU wrote:

Good afternoon Marquis,

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from a New York SUNY school in May 2013. I have since then been working for a biopharmaceutical company within their manufacturing group. This June will mark my 2 years working for this company and I am looking to somehow break into consulting (hopefully within the biopharma niche) at the entry level. Do you think that this is doable as I don’t have a business background (but plan on doing some rigorous studying and prepping for the next months)? The Big 3 would be great but I am open to other firms as well.

SU

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My response:

Hi SU,

Thanks for finding my website and reaching out with your question.

Let me start by congratulating you on making it to the 2-year mark with your first employer. That’s a major milestone and a good start to your career. I totally understand your desire to move into management consulting and, hopefully, you’ll be able to leverage your previous experience to do so.

To answer your main question to me, I do think that it is possible for you to break into consulting coming out of industry and with no business background. Fortunately for you, you’d be looking at Analyst-level roles, so, at that stage, consulting firms are mostly looking for smart people who have strong problem solving capabilities and have the potential to do good work with the right coaching and development.

Here are some factors that you should consider when pursue a career switch into management consulting:

  • Articulating your “Why consulting?” story: People tend to underestimate how difficult it can be to develop a “Why consulting” story that makes sense. Usually, people just think of consulting as a path because it seems “sexy” and the type of job that looks good on a resume to start one’s business career. While that may be true, it is necessary to have more motivations than those in order for this kind of transition to make sense. The lifestyle challenges of being a Management Consultant shouldn’t be ignored, but, for the right reasons, it can make sense to deal with those challenges. You will need to make recruiters and interviewers understand that your motivation for making this kind of career transition is real and is a good move, given your longer-term career aspirations.

  • Preparing for the interviews: You mentioned that you’re ready to start studying/prepping, so I have a feeling that you understand how important it will be to prepare for the consulting case interview process. There are thousands of people who have wanted to become consultants more than anything, but underestimated how tough the interviews can be and, ultimately, couldn’t make the transition. For you as an experienced hire, it is even more important for you to be on-point in your interviews because it is more difficult to both get an interview and get to the offer stage as an experienced candidate. I’ve written a few blog posts about experienced hire-related issues, so you might want to search for my archives for information about that. In terms of your preparation, I’d recommend finding a few good case prep books to learn the fundamentals of cracking cases and then find some people to service as interviewers with whom you can practice and refine your interview game. Practice makes perfect and that’s especially true when it comes to case interviews.

  • Finding the right firm: This is probably the most important part of the whole process because the fit of an employer is so important to one’s overall job experience. Also, there are so many consulting firms out there that it can be easy to simply choose a firm based on name and reputation. Those are indeed important factors, but I’d argue that other items (e.g., company culture, geographic focus, industry/functional focus) are just as important. I’m glad that you’re open to considering firms outside of the Big 3 because most of the people who contact me are only targeting McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. As you know, those are the toughest companies in the consulting game, so people who go in with such a narrow consideration set are making things much more difficult for themselves. If I were you, I’d be looking at the Big 3, other strategy-focused large firms (e.g., PwC, Accenture Strategy, KPMG Strategy), and boutique firms focused on your niche areas of expertise.

One big question that I have is whether you plan to apply to business school at some point. If so, then you could always aim for a boutique firm or a non-“Big 3” firm toget initial consulting experience prior to business school. Then, after finishing your MBA, you could leverage your subject matter expertise and prior consulting work to get a job at a Big 3, biotech/biopharma-focused investment firm, or in industry. With your starting point, you’ll have a ton of options.

I hope that my comments above are helpful as you plan your journey into the management consulting world. Take care and have a great day.

Marquis