Thanks for putting this together! A few additional points and highlights that may be especially relevant to people with Science backgrounds, based on my experience
If one of your key reasons for going into consulting is skill building, be deliberate about what you learn. Articulate your reflections on the bigger picture around your projects, seriously focus when defining your learning goals, make re-usable templates for yourself, and refine all of the above regularly. It’s easy to forget this in the hustle of a 60-hour week, so set yourself a reminder.
MBB are super excited about hiring people with science backgrounds (PhDs), even with zero prior business experience, if they come from good universities and are otherwise impressive. Don’t think you don’t stand a chance without an MBA if you think you are a good fit.
Yes, the business case studies are important—it may seem stupid but you do need to practice those. Take them seriously! Prepping min 2 weeks full time is totally reasonable.
my pleasure :)
In this case, it was a client project with Blue Horizon, so for a while it actually was my job to work on this report. That said, within three years at BCG, this is the first time I work on something so closely EA-related. I am putting in quite a bit of “flex time” now that the report is published and I am staffed on a different topic, to position myself for more work in this space.
I was hired as a generalist consultant after my biotech PhD, so I usually do a lot of pharma work, and some cases in other sectors. I made my way into this project by reaching out to the partners who had the client relationship—lots of internal networking, which is the usual way for consultants to get staffed on cases they want.
As to how replicable this sort of step may be for other EA-aligned management consultants, I think there are a lot of moving parts that need to “click” together: I had the biotech background, the right level of experience, I was free at the right time, I found out about the case and I had support from my network. If you need this kind of thing to happen within three years to be satisfied with your choice of going into consulting, it seems like an overly risky bet. As part of a portfolio of reasons to go into consulting, next to great personal fit, it seems fine. To increase the odds, the key factor is your network—there are now EA groups at all of the major firms; happy to point anyone already working there in the right direction.