Getting out of my comfort zone

By Felicia

Felicia is a business analyst in our Hong Kong office. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 2016 with a double major in government and psychology, Felicia worked in sales and trading at JPMorgan for two years before joining McKinsey. She’s interested in exploring a variety of functions and industries, especially e-commerce, fintech, and digital transformation. Outside of work, Felicia enjoys horse riding, seeking out breathtaking views, and trying out new products from startups.

August 3, 2020Having moved back to the US recently from Hong Kong, one of the most complex issues I’ve wrapped my head around is the US healthcare system. Everyone agrees it needs improvement, but that’s about as far as the consensus goes. I wanted to better understand the various stakeholders and incentives at play, and so I reached out to Rob, a healthcare EM I had met when he was doing a program abroad in Hong Kong.

As luck would have it, Rob was staffing for a diligence on an healthcare provider, and I managed to convince him that my private equity experience would make up for my relative lack of knowledge on US healthcare. Thus began my stint as a healthcare consultant. After finishing that diligence, I decided to continue working with Rob on a merger for two healthcare companies. As we had to benchmark various metrics across the two organizations to uncover and size synergy opportunities, I was able to gain a comprehensive view of how the healthcare companies operated across multiple dimensions.

I really value these opportunities to learn on the job, and Rob and I would spend parts of our check-in or check-out meetings answering any questions I may have about how US healthcare operates. Even though there were times when I felt like a first-year BA again, having to rely on the EM for more prescriptive instructions, I’m really enjoying the experience of a steeper content learning curve. I’m always grateful at the degree to which people are willing to take chances on you at McKinsey. Expressing interest, being a hard worker, and having a few people you’ve worked with in the past who are willing to vouch for you goes a long way.

Until next time,

Felicia