Offers from Healthcare strategy consulting v. Econ Consulting (Cornerstone, Analysis, NERA)
Hi, Currently have offers from both a healthcare focused consulting firm and econ consulting firm (Cornerstone, Analysis, etc.) . Was wondering about main differences in work, culture, and people between strategy and econ firms. I do have life sciences background and do like healthcare type stuff, but want to keep my options open and don't want to pigeon hole myself.
Also, Which is better for transitioning into mgmt consulting or even finance type role? For MBA? General transferable skills since I'm not sure what I want to do?
Congrats on getting multiple offers!
The healthcare consulting firm will likely operate like your "typical" management consulting firm but will just focus on that one industry. This means you will be working on projects dealing with product launches for new drugs as they relate to patents and target markets, technology strategies for hospitals, pricing models for drugs and devices, insurance based problems, etc. These will be projects that will shape companies in one way or another by directly affecting their business. The people will be a mix of folks with traditional MBA (or econ-y undergrad) backgrounds and those with PhD's or MD's as well as the brain children who manage to get multiple of those distinctions.
Econ consulting is a very different animal. You will almost always be supporting a litigation of some sort. Your client is usually a law firm and you are supporting them through building models, doing primary and secondary research, and assisting with "expert witness" type stuff. This is a much more academic role where people will be from more varied backgrounds. Econ consulting is not inherently "business" related as your decisions are less focused around shaping a company but more around shaping the outcome of a court case. There is generally fairly low travel for most in econ-consulting but the hours can be just as long as those in strategy roles.
My gut tells me that the life sciences strategy position would be a better fit if you are looking to move into management consulting. The types of problems that you will be solving and the analyses that you would be performing more closely match what one of the core consulting firms such as MBB or the more generalist boutique shops might work on. I think both would be great starts for an MBA, you will find people from both type of firm exiting to some really good programs. In regards to a finance type role I wouldn't say I'm educated enough in that area to provide anything too insightful.
If you are looking to stay more generalist I would say that the econ-consulting is a slightly better fit. You may risk carrying a label as the "heathcare guy" if you choose to go to the focused strategy firm but since you're an UG that is nothing a good MBA couldn't largely erase.
Good luck making your decision. Great position to be in!
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