It’s been just over a year since I shared my “Day in the Life” with the Young MCA. When reflecting on the insights shared in the original article, I can see how my position in healthcare consulting at Akeso has contributed immensely to my professional development. When progressing to my promotion to Consultant, one of the most noticeable shifts has been increased responsibility and complexity of the work that I’m confident in leading. Consulting continues to be a strong fit for my curiosity and drive to facilitate meaningful change – something I’ve found to be a shared trait across the team at Akeso.
Over the past two years, it has been genuinely rewarding to work closely with a wide range of clients solving complex problems and co-developing solutions that make a tangible impact. Highlights include designing workforce optimisation initiatives across four acute NHS Trusts employing over 24,000 staff and helping shape the long-term commercial plan for a new €190 million healthcare facility in Ireland – an exciting step in broadening my experience beyond the UK healthcare system.
Throughout this time, my scientific research background has continued to shape my evidence-based approach within my work. But I still stand by my original article, that if you’re looking for a role in consulting: “Most individuals […] won’t have directly relevant experience, so learning from this I recommend highlighting the skills that you have developed in the experience you do have, whether it’s leading the group project or your part-time job in hospitality.”.
A real highlight this year has been welcoming new colleagues to the team. As Akeso continues to grow, so does the diversity of thought, background, and experience across the firm – something I find both inspiring and energising. It’s been a year of steep learning, development, and adapting to new challenges, but if I had to pick a proudest moment… winning the “Good Vibes Only” award at our company event might just top the list.
Marianne Richards – Day in the Life of a Young Consultant
Throughout my degree in Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University and my Integrated Immunology MSc at Oxford University, I was focused on pursuing a career in scientific research, completing multiple academic projects centred heavily in the field of genomics. When graduating from my Master’s degree, I realised I wanted to try a career outside of the laboratory, having worked for Merck, Sharpe and Dohme in my year out. However, I found it difficult to find a job description that I found suitably impactful in comparison to research. This made it easier to define the requirement to work in Healthcare, which is how I found Akeso – a boutique healthcare consultancy.
In consulting and due to Akeso standards, the expectations of project delivery are high from the outset which is a steep, but welcome, learning curve. It also is worth mentioning that time and expectation management quickly become vital skills, along with clear prioritisation of your to-do list. The reason a career in consulting guarantees employability is due to the vast amount of career capital that is gained ie. skills in project management, client engagement, data analysis and exposure to different organisations, in both the public and private sectors. For example, in my first six-months alone I have helped to open a world leading diagnostic hub, delivered a full hospital charity strategy and have streamlined internal working processes. I find working in the field of Healthcare incredibly rewarding, being given the opportunity to positively impact people’s health and working in such multi-disciplinary teams.
At Akeso, the working style is completely different in comparison to a laboratory, with much more collaboration giving a sense of teamwork which I’ve enjoyed. Personally, I prefer to be in the office as the informal learnings from your peers and seniors are highly valuable. But, the option to work from home also allows a good work-life balance, and helps me to keep up with multiple hobbies and a regularly socialising.
When searching for a role in consultancy, I found it difficult to highlight the strengths a background in research had given me in terms of manoeuvrability, independent project management and resilience. Most individuals looking for a career in consulting won’t have directly relevant experience, so learning from this I recommend highlighting the skills that you have developed in the experience you do have, whether it’s leading the group project or your part-time job in hospitality. Whilst I found the application process daunting, I actually had a lot of fun during the assessment day and interview process – a good signal that consulting and Akeso were the right fit!
