WSO Podcast | E83: Medical School to Top Consulting Firm as Life Science Specialist
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In this episode, @BostonMD shares his path of 11 years of schooling to get his medical degree to breaking into top consulting firm. Learn why he pivoted away from medicine and some of the opportunities afforded to graduate students trying to break into strategy consulting. We also hear what has been the most difficult part of his transition to work and one wise piece of advice he gives to the younger listeners.
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WSO Podcast (Episode 83) Transcript:
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:00:06] Hello and welcome. I'm Patrick Curtis. Your host and chief monkey, and this is the Wall Street Oasis podcast. Join me as I talk to some of the community's most successful and inspirational members to gain valuable insight into different career paths and life in general. Let's get to it. In this episode, bostonMD shares his path of 11 years of schooling to get his medical degree to breaking into top consulting firm. Learn why he pivoted away from medicine and some of the opportunities afforded to graduate students trying to break into strategy consulting. We also hear what has been the most difficult part of his transition to work, and one wise piece of advice he gives to the younger listeners enjoy. All right, Boston, MD. Thanks so much for joining the Wall Street Voices podcast.
BostonMD: [00:01:00] My pleasure.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:01:01] So first off, I love the username. Obviously, I'm a huge Boston fan. If you could give the listeners a little a little summary of your bio. That'd be great.
BostonMD: [00:01:13] Oh, definitely so. Born and raised in state of Kentucky, and then I've decided to kind of leave the state just to have an opportunity to kind of find myself, explore new territories and meet new people. I ended up going to a school in Atlanta, Georgia. Most of my time was spent as a pre-med, so I was a biology and neuroscience major, really with the ultimate goal of trying to get into med school. So that's really all I focused on. Did some scientific research during the summer at various institutions across the country make myself a little more appealing to the to the medical process? After I graduated, I decided to actually take a year off, went up to Baltimore. It's been a full year in the lab getting published, really trying to kind of perfect my resume to the best of my ability. And then decided to matriculate to med school.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:02:13] Yeah, go ahead.
BostonMD: [00:02:15] Yeah. So I applied to med school. I've got a number of different offers applied at an MD, as well as an M.D., Ph.D. I wasn't really sure what kind of track I was most interested in going into long term. Really like my institution at Duke, just really like the people there felt home. I really felt that I could grow the most there. And so I decided to enroll there within the first couple of months. Really thought I was going to be a general surgeon. That's what I was kind of training to do. I had talked with a number of residents and professors in that space and really felt like our personality fit. My interest in in surgery was genuine and thought that was going to be my track. So about halfway through my training program, I decided to pursue a second degree, so I decided to pursue a master's in clinical research. They kind of focused on health economics and outcomes research, and so as a part of that really got exposed to the business side of health care. And so learn more about the payer provider dynamics, value based care models a little bit more about the journey of pharmaceutical drugs and devices from pre-clinical stage to market products and really start to enjoy that more than I thought I would. And I kind of explore that more. Talk to some of my mentors. Administrators within the university decided that was going to be the path I would choose, at least for a couple of years before starting residency. And so I thought management consulting sounded like an interesting path. And so I did kind of normal route in terms of applying to McKinsey, Bain BCG, some kind of smaller, healthcare focused firms and really thought that offered me what I was looking for. They kind of guarantee that can do life science and health care. Twenty four seven three sixty five, which was, of course, most appealing to me as a medically trained physician and then didn't have to do as much traveling.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:04:36] Great and well, yeah. So let's go all the way back when you so I mean, it sounds like you were very focused on medicine, medicine, medicine, even up through medical school and then suddenly you had this kind of. Change of change of heart or change of pace. What do you think drove that was that you weren't enjoying the medical aspect as much or do you feel like something else was calling you?
BostonMD: [00:04:58] You have a very good question. No, I actually really enjoyed the medical and clinical aspect of my training. I got a lot of enjoyment out of it really like the patient interaction thought I was doing some really interesting work making a difference in patients lives. But I think it was just the opportunity to explore something that I wasn't familiar with and I knew it. It was at a time where, you know, the Affordable Care Act was going through a number of revisions. The health care industry as a whole is trying to find a better way to provide care more efficiently and more affordably. And I thought that was something I wanted to better understand whether or not I was going to stay on that path or even come back, and I thought that training and that exposure would make me a better clinician.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:05:54] So you kind of it sounds like it was like a curiosity thing where you're just kind of exactly you didn't want to let that. You didn't want to just go do medicine for your whole life and just never having exactly done anything else. Ok, so you experience that, but you enjoyed it, right?
BostonMD: [00:06:08] I did. I enjoyed it a lot, a lot more than I thought I would, actually.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:12] What about that? What about that kind of pique your interest? What specifically was it? The clinical research part of it was that the what?
BostonMD: [00:06:19] Yeah, it was more about learning about health care policy and health care economics, because that's not something that med school really trained you to understand. It's about how to diagnose on and how to treat them. And that's really about it. And so understanding some of the economic underpinnings of from the decisions that academic medical centers make private teams and professionals make when they're trying to do their own private practice or even larger health care systems make, I think it was about really trying to kind of round out my understanding of medicine and health care.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:06:59] So being a now, I guess you're now a consultant, right? But you're really a specialist. You're kind of a specialist in the consulting under consulting, right? Right. So in terms of what you do day to day, is it what we would typically think is like a management consultant where you have actual clients and you're helping them solve problems? Or are you are you put on engagements? Obviously there. They're focused on life sciences and health care issue, but how do I even think about, let me step back, ease your question, how do I even think about life science consulting? What do you do?
BostonMD: [00:07:31] Yeah, so basically what I do, I focus specifically on strategy and due diligence cases. And so within the life sciences, we're talking about biopharma companies, large small startups, what have you also looking at medical technology and devices companies. And then we also have another component that's health care services. So pay your provider, value based care models, et cetera.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:08:00] And so how much of your work is like doing research about the actual market financially and business wise versus like bringing your medical knowledge and your clinical health?
BostonMD: [00:08:10] Yeah, definitely. So I'm basically used as a management consultant that you would be at any other firm, so I have a client engagement that I'm on. And essentially, what makes me different is that I have this clinical component that kind of allows me to serve almost as an expert to the team. And so within the life sciences, and I'll know it's really technical, a lot of terms and jargon that unless you're kind of raised in that space, it's kind of hard to understand and you're going to kind of get lost in the fray. And so to have someone who can kind of ramp up quicker, who can serve as kind of the expert on the team and kind of give more validity to the work product for the client, I think that's kind of where the value added I bring. And so are you are
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:00] You placed on like more engagements than like the typical like person one or two years into their role because you're like hitting on almost all of their life science stuff? Or are you brought in only on specific ones where, like your expertise is the most important?
BostonMD: [00:09:15] Yeah. So I'm brought on any case. I'm open to be brought on any case that revolves around health care in the life sciences. And so it doesn't have to be within a specific niche aspect of that. It can be any related case, OK?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:09:34] And so how has that been? I mean, you were in school for a long time? Yeah, yeah. You know, from what? Twenty seven to twenty eight, 11 years you were in school? Yeah. And then finally, you're in the working world. Talk to me a little bit about that transition.
BostonMD: [00:09:47] Yeah, definitely. No time flies when you're having fun. No, it was a difficult transition. I'll be honest, coming into consulting with like learning a new language. I had a very limited business background, you know, learning how to do excel, modeling, learning what a valuation of a company is. Powerpoint about PowerPoint. All the dynamics behind that which are all very new to me.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:10:19] Were you when you were prepping, when you were prepping for your interviews, like you said, you did the McKinsey, Bain and BCG thing? How were you coming out of med school? Do they recruit out of there? I think they do have something for PhDs, but were you recruiting? Do they have something for MDS?
BostonMD: [00:10:33] They do. Yeah. So basically we were recruiting similar to how PhD or other graduate students are. And so my university had a consulting club for graduate students, so advanced degree consulting club. And so basically, we would have, you know, either former or alumni of university who are now at these firms come back and just trying to recruit, tell, tell us about their experience.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:03] Did they help you prep case interviews?
BostonMD: [00:11:05] Yeah, they definitely
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:07] Did even give that to you guys, huh?
BostonMD: [00:11:09] Even you. Yeah, exactly. So did that. You know, there was case competitions that the at the club kind of host did. So did all those kind of typical things would work with people?
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:25] I assume it was super competitive, given how sharp all the MDS are and PhDs and like, yeah, they probably pick it up really fast, right?
BostonMD: [00:11:33] And then surprisingly quickly. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And so, you know, we would find time to Skype and meet on campus to do, you know, fit interview, question practice, as well as practice cases that we would get in the business school and bug all the business students for and just, yeah.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:11:52] Are you planning? Is this move for you? Like, again, just more of like a taste to before you go into practice, do you feel like you're going to end up going to residency in a few years? Or how does that? Or is it like more of a matching process where like, you don't know what's going to happen? Like how? How does that work in terms of like you get, you have to get recommendations out of med school for like different residencies or is it?
BostonMD: [00:12:15] Yeah, yeah, that's right. And so the way I. Line things up for myself was that I would do all the necessary things to get into residency so that, you know, if that time came and if I can make that transition, yeah, I would have all the test scores, recommendations, et cetera. Ready to apply. So I had that lined up and I tell myself each year I would re-evaluate and see. I really enjoy what I'm doing. My over it go back to medicine. And I figured within the first two or three years, I'd have a clear understanding of kind of what I want to do and what I'm enjoying and whether or not.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:12:56] But you're not there yet. You don't really know yet. Still evaluating?
BostonMD: [00:13:01] Well, I think at this point, I kind of know that I'm going to stay kind of in the business, out of health care and kind of give up, you know, becoming a a practicing clinician.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:12] Oh, OK, cool. So in terms of the specifics, we can go back to that kind of recruiting aspect of things. So, you know, alumni were coming back giving you that, that helping you with case interviews. What was the hardest part of going from medical knowledge to case interview knowledge?
BostonMD: [00:13:29] Yeah. I had no idea what the interview was. And so trying to just read any book I possibly could on a case in point and all those kind of typical interview preparation books just to learn what the interview was.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:13:47] Yeah, we have. We have one on Wall Street crisis management consultant.
BostonMD: [00:13:49] Yes. Yeah. So want to do just wanted to do all of that. So it was about trying to read, talk with alumni,get a sense of like case interview was how do you prepare for it? What is it look like to do one? Well, what kind of questions are usually asked? What is the thought process? How do you
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:12] What do you think? What do you think was the biggest impact out of all that prep
BostonMD: [00:14:17] Being able to effectively communicate a complex problem? Break it down into smaller pieces and evaluate each piece one by one to get
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:26] What, like what practice led to that repetition?
BostonMD: [00:14:30] It was, yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. And so I probably went through 30 to 40 practice case interviews with other PhDs and alumni.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:44] And yeah, and I bet your thirtieth was much better than your first.
BostonMD: [00:14:48] No doubt about I thought about it.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:14:51] Cool. So, so yeah, in terms of just advice you'd give to your younger self, you know, you went through a lot of schooling or any other, the users that are maybe in medicine that are considering a career in consulting or business or finance. What would you say in terms of how to evaluate it?
BostonMD: [00:15:09] Yeah, I would first say to always, you know, be open and true to yourself in terms of what do you like, what don't you like and just be open to exploring different avenues? Because I think kind of going through the, you know, the pre-med track, getting into med school, it's you kind of have to have blinders on. That's all you can really think about. It's all you can really do. It's all about doing as well as you can. And classes get as much research experience score as hydrocarbon MCAT, and you can't think about any other option. And so, you know, trying to take a step back always kind of be willing to explore new things, whether it's educationally related or personally or kind of what have you and be open to see where that leads you.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:16:01] Yeah, it's an interesting point. I mean, I think there's probably a lot of listeners that have parents that are pushing them to be doctors or lawyers or engineers because we know, I know we have a lot of listeners that are from Asian descent, Indian and Asian American and even people from Hong Kong. The stereotype is that their parents tend to push them into three one of three careers. And I see it here and I always say, you know, don't rush into something. And I think that the one year you took as a as a break, was it not a break, but when you kind of went to the lab? Right? My guess is that was probably like, Well, let me just see what this is like and you kind of were started exploring outside of medicine, probably because you're curious. And I think that's important for people to feel comfortable doing that and know that they have a lot of time. You don't need to rush through everything. People go to medical school when they're older.
BostonMD: [00:16:58] Yeah, and no doubt about it. I had people in my class, some of the most brilliant individuals I've ever interacted with. One came from law school and now the M.D. JD. And so not only practices in medicine but malpractice law and can kind of meld into another individual as an actor out in Ally had done that for a little bit and decided, you know, that radiology was more of a calling. And so I came to med school and now the radiologist. And so again, I
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:31] Go, Yeah, my cousin, my cousin didn't go to med school until like four or five years or even more after she graduated undergrad. So some people take a while to kind of get there. Definitely. And there's nothing wrong with that. And I think it's important to kind of when you're ready to do it, it's a huge commitment, obviously. I mean, you went almost straight out of college, you had one year, right? That's right. But it was it was pretty, pretty intense, right?
BostonMD: [00:17:56] Yeah, definitely, Brian.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:17:58] No doubt it looked intense. Just looking at your LinkedIn like, Oh man, yeah. But yeah, I mean, kudos to you for pulling it off and having having the courage to kind of do something else after all that. So yeah, anything anything else you want to share before we call it or anything you think that that's useful? I think what you said is was great, but I figured I'd ask one last time.
BostonMD: [00:18:23] I mean, I think for individuals like myself who. For the first to go to graduate school of any kind, the first to become the doctor. You know, a lot of people kind of feel that pressure to do something great for their family and for their legacy, but also know that you do it for yourself as well and not always trying to put too much pressure on you if your parents expect you to go one way or another.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:18:52] But yeah, you've got to do. Yeah, you got to do it for yourself. I mean, you're the one. You're going to be waking up every day going to that job.
BostonMD: [00:18:59] Yeah, living that life.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:00] Exactly. You're your life. Make your decision to figure out what you like, not what your parents want you to do. Because guess what they're going to, they're going to love you event. They may, they may disown you for six months here. But if you're waking up happy and you're positive and you're successful because you're doing what you love, I think there's a lot to be said for that.
BostonMD: [00:19:19] Oh, I completely agree.
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:21] Great. Well, Boston, M.D. Thanks so much for joining us.
BostonMD: [00:19:23] My pleasure. Thanks for
Patrick (CEO of WSO): [00:19:24] Having me. And thanks to you, my listeners at Wall Street Oasis. If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please don't hesitate to send them my way. Patrick at Wall Street Oasis. And till next time.
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