Thursday, April 2, 2009

Consulting for McKinsey or the Boston Consulting Group

It seems like many students who pursue a joint MD/MBA want to get a consulting job at McKinsey & Company. Who wouldn't? I've known several people who have worked at McKinsey and I'm always fascinated by the unique stories associated with the McKinsey culture. I've also met medical school graduates who have pursued opportunities at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG, not to be confused with the BCG vaccine). So what about you? Do you have strong interests in the business/consulting industry? If you're pre-med, are you planning on pursuing an MD/MBA program? As I look back on my education, I often wonder whether I would have pursued a combined MD/MBA. Since I lacked "real world" working experience before applying to medical school, I think I would have been lost in business school. Had a been a non-traditional student who had worked for several years prior to applying to medical school, then I would have seriously considered a combined MD/MBA program.

5 comments:

  1. I'd like to read some of those unique stories. Please consider using them as subjects for upcoming blogs.

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  2. Hey Dr Kim

    I am an MD from Europe. I almost did the McKinsey thing. Never did an MBA but was invited to fly out (biz class!) to their interviews. So I did that. I actually loved the people there. Super smart, super cool. I also did BCG, and have some friends there. The 2 are slightly different in culture.

    But in the end I decided it wasn't for me. I left hospital med in the first place so that I would not become a wage slave and be tied down to 100 hour work weeks. I definitely do think the culture fit me better at McKinsey than hospital med, but in the end I just decided to pursue my own thing. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I've started a few things myself now both online and offline, and it's starting to pay off.

    So while it may be for some, esp with opps for career dev and ladder and travel, I would say put yourself in the shoes of someone who has to wake up at 5am on Monday mornings to fly to a dingy hotel in a foreign country, work out of an office all week, then fly back on Friday evenings, week after week after week. The biz class aspect wears out fast, and you'll still be wearing a suit. But I guess it's still for some people!

    My plan: to build my own biz, and someday, McKinsey can work for me!

    Vince

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  3. Just curious how a practicing physician such as myself goes about exploring a consulting career for companies such as BCG and McKinsey?

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  4. I did Accenture clinical transformation consulting before medical school and it was the best decision. The perspective really allowed me to have a big-picture grasp of what healthcare is all about beyond the minutia of science. It also helped me understand that I wanted to be a an actual doctor and that you don't need an MD to work for McKinsey and do health care work. There's too much of a doctor workforce shortage right now!

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  5. Thanks for the feedback Mike. I am curious as to what an actual MD with years of clinical practice might bring to the consulting arena as compared to someone from a traditional business/consulting background.

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