Breaking into business or management consulting as a new dental grad

[wannagiveup]

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Say if a new grad dentist wants to switch career into business or management consulting fields (eg McKinsey, BCG etc) Does anyone know how one should go about making contacts and possibly getting some interviews? Is MBA from a "target school" required?

 

[monkeykey]

Say if a new grad dentist wants to switch career into business or management consulting fields (eg McKinsey, BCG etc) Does anyone know how one should go about making contacts and possibly getting some interviews? Is MBA from a "target school" required?

May I ask why you want to leave?


I work in corporate finance so here’s my understanding. You do not need an MBA to switch but you will need something to get your foot in the door. You would need to have some other work experience in a related field, get an MBA at a top 25 school and use their recruiting resources to land a gig, know somebody within the company who has enough clout to get you a job.

I think it would be easier to try and get into less prestigious company doing consulting first, your DMD might show them you’re intelligent enough, then work a few years doing that while moving over and then move to McKinsey.

 

[wannagiveup]

May I ask why you want to leave?


I work in corporate finance so here’s my understanding. You do not need an MBA to switch but you will need something to get your foot in the door. You would need to have some other work experience in a related field, get an MBA at a top 25 school and use their recruiting resources to land a gig, know somebody within the company who has enough clout to get you a job.

I think it would be easier to try and get into less prestigious company doing consulting first, your DMD might show them you’re intelligent enough, then work a few years doing that while moving over and then move to McKinsey.

Are you an analyst or an associate at one of these firms? Do you think I could start out as an associate if I try to break in right now rather than an analyst of some sort? I was thinking about working as a dentist for about five years saving up for an MBA program at a target school and then going for the big firms. Just wasn't sure if there was a recruiting pipeline that I am not aware of for recent grad healthcare professionals at these firms. What are some smaller firms you mentioned?

 

[monkeykey]

I am a first year analyst. Why do you want to leave?

 

[beyondme]

Are you an analyst or an associate at one of these firms? Do you think I could start out as an associate if I try to break in right now rather than an analyst of some sort? I was thinking about working as a dentist for about five years saving up for an MBA program at a target school and then going for the big firms. Just wasn't sure if there was a recruiting pipeline that I am not aware of for recent grad healthcare professionals at these firms. What are some smaller firms you mentioned?

I’m not a dental grad, but have explored this option in the past. From my knowledge, the big 3 firms hire professionals, but they tend to be MD or JD grads and they typically start at the same level as an MBA or PhD grad (one notch higher than someone with a MS or a business undergrad). I’m not sure that a dentist has been hired by any of these firms and I believe the only reason they hire MDs is because of their expertise with healthcare systems (given that many of these firms have healthcare corporations as their clients). This isn’t to say that a dentist couldn’t be hired, but you need to have a strong critical/analytical thinking and problem solving skillset, and relevant expertise based on their needs.

The mid-tier consulting firms include Deloitte, KPMG, EY (not sure they have a healthcare stream), Accenture (not sure they have a healthcare stream), and PwC. There are other healthcare-specific firms as well, such as IQVIA.

 

[Blackca3]

That’s a stressful field to work in. I left the operations and management consulting field in 2017 for dental school. I worked in house for Amazon and Target. PwC tried to poach me for a senior analyst role in their anti money laundering department with an offer that was 65% of my current salary. The offer was very insulting. Had a lot of friends after college go work for one of the big firms. None still work for one.

 

[monkeykey]

Big four accounting firms pay people garbage! You need a masters in a accounting most of the time to start working for them and then you will make $55k a year starting while working 60 hour work weeks. As per contrast finance majors at a good school will start maikng $60-70K working a 40 hour week if you're outside of high finance and you don't need to get a masters.

 

[pubhealthdent]

Say if a new grad dentist wants to switch career into business or management consulting fields (eg McKinsey, BCG etc) Does anyone know how one should go about making contacts and possibly getting some interviews? Is MBA from a "target school" required?

Also very curious about why you'd want to switch right out of dental school?