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Life sciencies consulting, how is it like?.

Junior Consultant life sciences Pharma R&D
New answer on Nov 17, 2022
1 Answer
718 Views
Anonymous A asked on Nov 15, 2022

I am a PhD candidate in Biology, the deadline for my thesis submission is in 2 months, after which, I will be available for work.

 

On LinkedIn, "Jefferson Wells Life Sciences" and "AKKODIS" contacted me to tell me about what they do and asked if I would be interested in consulting. We had a telephone conversation and a video chat.

 

According to them, they have a variety of clients, so they'll provide me with job offers from their client, and if I'm interested, my profile will be forwarded to the client. If the client is interested, they'll schedule an interview with me and I'll be working for that client for the duration of the project if everything goes well. In the event that I don't like the project, it can be changed. The majority of their clients are Biotechs and Big Pharmas.

 

Additionally, "Jefferson Wells Life Sciences" or "AKKODIS" offers permanent employment contracts. They will pay the salaries and benefits and all.

 

(i) To begin with, I would like to ask those who are familiar with this type of business model, what should one look out for?.

 

(ii) What do consultants in life sciences (R&D) do?.

At first, I thought these clients would have experiments to perform like vaccine development etc, and I would be there to carry out the web-lab experiments for the duration of the project. But reading here, it seems more like solving problems than performing wet-lab experiments.

I would appreciate if anyone working in R&D consulting could clarify. What is the role of R&D consultants in the life sciences industry?

 

(iii) One of the companies organised a meeting after work event and I was invited to attend. It will be an opportunity to meet with other consultants and know what the company does and how they treat their consultant. We are told to come with a smile.

 

How can one best prepare for this kind of event. I already planned to go with my CV and Cover letter. Is this necessary?.

 

Lastly, thank you for this platform, this is the first time I have ever heard about Fit interview, and case interview. Fpr those cosulting in life sciences R&D or other life sciences industries, the case interview will be very much different to the ones in McKinsey, Deloitee etc

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Best answer
Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Nov 17, 2022
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

What a fantastic series of questions to ask in your networking calls :)

Get on the phone and talk to people at these firms to find out what the day-to-day is like and what they specifically do!

For the networking event, please don't show up with your CV/Cover letter printed out! It sounds like a “typical” networking event where you will be meeting/talking with different consultants. Be engaged, ask good questions, etc.

P.S. I highly recommend a coach as you have a lot of questions and seem to be quite new to and confused by the overall process!

Here's some reading for you: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/pitfalls-case-interview-preparation

 

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Ian

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