How can someone from a non-MBA background (like medicine) build business intuition and learn to think more structurally in cases?

Question

Hi everyone,

I come from a non-traditional background (medicine) and have been preparing for consulting interviews for a while now. I’ve done over 100 structures and 50+ live cases, but I still don’t feel confident — people often say “the more you practice, the better you’ll get,” but despite all the practice, I still feel quite lost.

I find three main challenges:

Business intuition: Candidates with MBA or business backgrounds seem to make faster and more insightful deductions because they already understand how industries work. I, on the other hand, often have to reason everything from first principles. My structures are logical, but my ideas can feel too abstract or generic.
Case math: Even though I was top of my class in math and physics and have strong mental math, I struggle to see what to calculate, why it matters, and which data points are truly relevant in a case.
Clarifying questions and information gathering: I often struggle to ask strong clarifying questions at the start of the case or request additional data later on — partly because I’m not sure what to ask for. I think this stems from not having that deeper business understanding or intuition that helps others know what’s “normal” or worth probing.

Coming from medicine, where we often deal with unstructured chaos and memorize tons of knowledge, I feel like consulting is the opposite — it thrives on structuring and prioritizing. In medicine, we’re trained to process complex information quickly and act decisively, but not necessarily to step back and structure problems explicitly — and I think that’s where I’m hitting a wall.

Someone once advised me to read the news to build business awareness and macroeconomic context, but I’m not sure how much that helps in practice.

So I’d love to ask:

Are there any books or resources you’d recommend to build business acumen or industry insights from scratch?
How can someone with a non-business background learn to think structurally rather than just absorb information?
How can I improve my case math logic — not just speed, but understanding what to calculate and why?
And finally, how can I get better at asking smart clarifying questions when I don’t yet know much about the business context?

Would really appreciate as many insights or recommendations as possible from others who’ve cracked this problem successfully! Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Having coached many from non-MBA background, here is what I'll say:

You’ve clearly put in serious effort, and what you’re facing now isn’t unusual — it’s the transition from volume-based learning to pattern-based understanding. Coming from medicine, you’re used to handling complexity, but consulting requires you to structure and prioritize fast, from the top down.

For business intuition, don’t waste time reading general news. Instead, go straight to case debriefs and consulting firm insights (Bain, BCG, McKinsey) and train yourself to spot business models, cost structures, and revenue levers. Ask yourself after each case: How did this company make money? What constrained it? That’s how you start seeing patterns, not just reacting to prompts.

Structuring is less about memorizing frameworks and more about building a mental library of how problems break down. Try blank-paper drills where you force yourself to create a structure from scratch. If you can explain your structure out loud clearly and link it to the client’s goal, you’re on the right track.

On case math, your issue isn’t the numbers — it’s purpose. Always ask: Why am I calculating this? What decision will this inform? Practice turning every result into an insight, like “This pricing strategy likely won’t hit the revenue target unless volume triples, which is unlikely given the channel constraints.”

Clarifying questions get easier when you anchor in the basics. Early in the case, try to understand four things: What does the company do? Who are its customers? What is the objective? What is the current situation? You don’t need fancy questions — just the ones that ground you in reality so you can solve the right problem.

You’ve already built a strong foundation. Now it’s about switching from brute-force practice to targeted, feedback-driven refinement. With your background, once you lock in this layer of strategic thinking, your problem-solving will stand out.

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

Hi there,

You’re asking all the right questions, and honestly, you’re describing what a lot of candidates from medicine, academia, or technical fields experience when they move into business problem-solving. Everything you’re struggling with is learnable and it just requires a different kind of practice.

1. Building business intuition
You don’t need an MBA to develop business sense. Start by reading concise, example-rich books that explain how companies actually make money (e.g., The Economist Guide to Business or The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman).
You can also pick a few industries (for instance, healthcare, retail, or tech) and read one-page summaries on Investopedia or industry reports from McKinsey Insights. Try to ask yourself: “How does this company create value? Who are their customers? What drives profit?” That habit builds intuition fast.

2. Learning to think structurally
Medicine has actually given you a big advantage: diagnostic reasoning. A patient presents with symptoms, you form hypotheses, test them, and prioritize what to do next: That’s consulting in a nutshell. The difference is that consulting uses business terms instead of medical ones. When practicing, always force yourself to pause and say, “What’s the problem I’m solving, and what are the possible causes?” That one step creates structure automatically.

3. Improving case math logic
Your math is fine; it’s the why behind the numbers that matters. Before calculating, ask yourself: “What decision am I trying to support?” or “What does this number tell me about the business problem?” For example, if the goal is profit growth, your math should always tie back to what drives profit (price, volume, cost). Practicing short market-sizing problems also helps you think in quantitative cause-and-effect terms.

4. Asking clarifying questions
You don’t need deep business knowledge to ask good questions. You just need curiosity about the situation. Use three simple buckets at the start:

Objective (what’s the exact goal or problem?)
Scope (what’s included or excluded?)
Context (any constraints or time pressures?)
That alone shows structured thinking. Later in the case, good follow-up questions usually start with “What’s driving…” or “Can we segment this by…” --> they help you understand relationships, not just data.

Finally, don’t underestimate the transferability of your background. Medicine trains you to diagnose effectively under pressure, handle complex situations with ambiguity, and communicate clearly. You already think like a consultant; you just need to learn the business vocabulary.

If you dedicate a few weeks to reading, reflecting on how businesses work, and doing shorter, more focused drills rather than just full cases, you’ll see your intuition start to click.

Best of luck!