Careers

Nearly 200 McKinsey consultants around the world have medical degrees. Some joined the firm right out of medical school, others after years of leading clinical departments at major medical centers. Still others worked for start-up companies before joining McKinsey or earned other professional degrees.

Over time, McKinsey has found that MDs make exceptional consultants. First of all, the same attributes and skills that have allowed you to succeed in medicine are essential in consulting. Like physicians, consultants must be exceptionally good with people, intellectually curious, creative, and analytically talented. They need strong skills in problem solving, logical reasoning, and leadership. While a head for business is important as well, you don't need a business degree to join McKinsey.

MDs bring to their teams not only relevant skills but a unique clinical perspective that allows them to approach healthcare problems in a way that provides tremendous value to our clients. On healthcare projects, MDs understand the context deeply from day one and can speak the “language of medicine” with clients and external experts.

McKinsey typically hires MDs as generalist consultants into an associate role, the same roles as their colleagues with MBAs. While most McKinsey MDs focus on healthcare over time, all McKinsey consultants, regardless of background, are encouraged to pursue a range of interests across a wide array of industries and countries. On McKinsey teams, MDs find many opportunities to contribute their medical knowledge, but the strong problem-solving and people skills developed during their medical careers are often their most important assets.

Practicing medicine can be fulfilling, emotional work. As a physician, you establish relationships with individuals and often see your influence immediately. Performing a difficult surgery, diagnosing a disease accurately, or giving hope to patients and their families can bring tremendous satisfaction.

McKinsey offers a different kind of satisfaction. Rather than influencing one patient at a time, you can help shape the systems and strategies that have much broader impact. We help our clients tackle some of their toughest problems. As a consultant, you have the potential to help shape the way healthcare decisions are made—decisions that influence the care of thousands or even millions of patients.

Additionally, McKinsey MDs enjoy the opportunity for learning and personal development. Through the combination of diverse, challenging client work, high-quality training programs, and one-on-one apprenticeship, McKinsey creates an unparalleled learning environment that most McKinsey MDs value greatly.

Finally, McKinsey MDs greatly enjoy their colleagues—McKinsey is a diverse, talented, and engaging group of people who do their best work as part of a team.

More than 450 McKinsey partners had no business background when they joined us. We have both formal and informal ways to help you become comfortable in the business world. All new consultants receive training in McKinsey's problem-solving approach, values, and principles. For those without business degrees, our mini-MBA, led by some of the world's top business professors, introduces the fundamentals of business.

The learning curve may seem steep at first, but you will quickly learn on the job, and you'll use the valuable skills you already have as an MD. McKinsey's apprenticeship model complements your formal training. You will find yourself understanding more about business and acquiring new skills with each engagement.

You will also have the support of your mentors and colleagues. When you join the firm, you will be assigned a McKinsey partner to help you coordinate your personal development and gauge your progress. Additionally, you will develop your own network of trusted advisers within McKinsey, including mentors at all levels to provide coaching and counseling and serve as sounding boards. Their job is to help you develop your potential.

It all depends on your interests and goals. As a consultant, you have the potential to progress more quickly than you would in academia or medicine. Some MDs stay at McKinsey and eventually become partners of the firm. Others stay at McKinsey long enough to achieve personal goals, such as learning about particular industries or working in other countries. Still others benefit from the options McKinsey provides to expand their skills and their network of contacts. McKinsey MDs have gone on to join a range of organizations both inside and outside of healthcare. Some also elect to return to clinical medicine, be that residency training, private practice, or academia.

McKinsey's alumni network includes more than 100 former consultants with MDs, who stayed with the firm an average of 3 years. They now work in a range of healthcare settings including global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical-device companies; large hospital systems and health insurers; smaller investment-oriented firms such as private equity and venture capital; and state/national government entities. A smaller portion have chosen nonhealthcare paths within a variety of industries including consumer packaged goods, automotive, alternative energy, and IT.