If you could become a healthcare consultant, where would you want to work? McKinsey, Bain, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), or Booz? Perhaps you may be looking for jobs with AT Kearney, Navigant, Accenture, Deloitte. Do you know what it takes to get a job in healthcare consulting? If you're looking for a competitive edge and you're willing to make an investment in your career, then you may want to consider investing in a career coach or mentor who has some first-hand experience working in a consulting firm.
As our nation prepares for some major changes within the healthcare system, I see that more opportunities will open up in the world of healthcare consulting. So many questions will need to get answered before we truly know what type of impact these healthcare reform changes will have on different industries ranging from pharma to managed care to hospital systems to actual physicians.
Healthcare/Life sciences consulting is a great option for someone with a medical/healthcare background. In addition to the firms you mentioned, there are countless boutique firms as well.
ReplyDeleteEven within healthcare/life sciences consulting, firms often specialize. For example, some firms may focus more on healthcare managment, others on stragetic consulting for early-stage pharma development, still others on late-cycle product management (taking a drug generic) or on medical devices. Depending on your interests and background, it would be a good idea to try to find out what type of work and clients that particular firm focuses on.
Another major difference within healthcare consulting is significantly different amounts of travel. Management consulting firms that work on operational issues tend to travel much more.