Behind the Scenes: An Insider's Guide to Management Consulting for Medical Professionals

If you are looking to transition out of your clinical job, management consulting is an attractive option because it opens the door to so many different opportunities, both within the healthcare industry and outside of it as well. In this insider’s guide, I provide a brief overview of management consulting based on my five years at McKinsey & Company.

I have been interested in business for as long as I can remember.

However, because my dad was a doc, I found myself automatically navigating the path towards medical school during my college years. This journey encompassed everything from taking pre-med courses and preparing for the MCATs, to conducting medical research and sending applications to schools nationwide. Admittedly, I never truly paused to reflect on whether this was the career I genuinely desired until I set foot in medical school.

In medical school, my actions spoke louder than words: my interests gravitated away from medicine and more towards other pursuits. In my first year, I successfully wrote a HUD grant, securing a million dollars for a Baltimore-based non-profit. By my second year, I was actively engaged in the United States Senate, right when key discussions about HIPAA — the health insurance portability and patient privacy laws — were underway. As I moved into my third and fourth years, I embarked on the journey of launching my very first start-up (first of many).

I eventually made my way to McKinsey & Company where I spent five years filled with ups and downs. 

I am often asked about my career path and my five years at McKinsey in particular, so I created this insider’s guide to management consulting for medical professionals. 

Brief overview

Companies in this space provide strategic, organization, operational and technological advice to senior management (e.g., CEO) at large publicly or privately owned companies. Consulting companies are hired to help solve a particular problem and an entry level consultant is the one who does the primary research, analysis and problem solving with guidance from a project manager and partner.

Companies

According to Vault.com, the top tier consulting companies are: McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. Click here for the full list.

What is a typical day like?

The typical project is 4-8 weeks long and the objective is to solve a particular problem for the client. The end product is typically a presentation to senior management at the end of the project. The team normally consists of one or two associates (entry-level consultants), a project manager and a partner. In the early stages of the project, you spend most of your day as a team figuring out what needs to be done to solve the problem and then splitting up the work. In the middle stages you work alone on the particular area you were tasked with solving. The latter stages of a project are focused on bringing everything together and synthesizing all of the findings. The project often culminates in a presentation of your findings to senior management.

What are the prerequisites for getting a management consulting job?

Many of the top consulting companies have recruitment programs targeting physicians. See this blog post by McKinsey for an example of one such program. In general, there are no specific requirements other than your medical degree. Residency training is preferred but not always required. You don't need an MBA or other advanced degree. Having experience in business or other non-clinical activities can certainly help but not necessarily required.

How hard is it to get a job offer?

Getting a job at a top management consulting company is extremely difficult. Think about what it takes to get into a top medical school and then raise the bar even higher. McKinsey lists only around "150 medical doctors" out of a total of 14,000 consultants worldwide. Despite the odds, like many jobs, you may be able to improve your chances through networking. In particular, networking can get your resume to the top of the (very large) pile of resumes. If you can get past the resume screen and get an interview, your chances are much better. The interview step at McKinsey consists of three rounds. Each round is successively more challenging. Most interviews involve problem solving on the fly. They ask you a question and they want to see you reason through the problem and solve it in front of them.

How hard is the day-to-day work?

The typical hours during a project are very long. There are no set hours, you stay as long as it takes to get your work done, sometimes all night. Weekends are not always protected, again, if completing your part of the project requires you to work the weekends, you do it. You normally have a break in between projects; this can sometimes be a day or as long as a couple of months. In my experience, McKinsey was generally very good about giving you a mental break if you needed it. There are lots of options such as pro bono work or knowledge development projects which are typically more casual than a client project. 

What is your income potential as a management consultant?

According to Glassdoor, the average base salary for a McKinsey associate ranges from $156K to $184K. In my experience, this number ramps up very quickly over time. If you perform well in your quarterly reviews, this slope is even steeper. They have a generous retirement plan, which included both matching as well as profit sharing, which usually doubled the amount you put into your retirement account each year.

My personal reflections about management consulting

This isn't a side-gig for medical professionals by any means. When you’re there, you work long hours and there isn’t a lot of room for anything else (including a personal life). The typical career length for most consultants is two years, so for most, it’s a launching pad to your next career. For medical professionals, it can lead to so many paths including investment banking, venture capital, specialty consulting firms (for example, consulting companies specializing in healthcare), executive positions in pharmaceutical companies or other healthcare organizations, leadership positions in non-profit organizations and etc. The skills, knowledge and confidence you gain will serve you well in any future endeavor. For me personally, my McKinsey experience gave me the confidence to start and build three successful companies, including our current company, Semi-Retired MD.