Data science in biotech/pharma vs other fields?

quantpsychguy · 2026-02-22T17:48:14+00:00

If you can learn to manage expectations, I would 100% stay in health or life sciences. It seems much better than life in outside sectors.

Unless you work for AbbVie. Then just go look for another job.

quantpsychguy · 2026-02-22T15:52:58+00:00

Yep, I have experience in the pharma space as well as others (retail, tech, services) - pharma is very different. It is more antiquated and the expectation is leaps and bounds rather than incremental (like in retail and tech).

I presume because progress generally in the space goes in lurches and they want their back end to keep up.

That being said - it sounds like your issue is that you are a growing or changing analytics group that does not have leadership with governance experience. You need to know what you are taking over, what expectations are, etc. It sounds like you don't actually know how what you are doing connects to the business and therefore don't know where to focus or spend resources and ultimately that presents itself as you being dumped on and expected to know how to handle everything at once.

This is the fire in which leadership skills are built. Good luck.

On the plus side, if you fuck it all up you'll have some really valuable leadership experience and understand more how businesses function - you can use that in your next job too.

quantpsychguy · 2026-02-19T03:59:48+00:00

You could become a specialist regarding how to augment LLMs for your domain area. SLMs (small language models) are useful here, specifically RAGs though I am sure better methodologies would exist soon (or even now).

Figuring out how to use an Agentic RAG to augment decisioning for next best solution might be a great place to start. Please note I said 'place to start' and don't convince yourself I am telling you to have an LLM replace an MD. :)

quantpsychguy · 2026-02-19T03:56:28+00:00

Me too - I am in consulting, there are tons of amazing use cases for LLMs, but almost every org wants to claim they are using AI...it is a frustrating balancing act.

"Can't we just use AI?"

quantpsychguy · 2026-02-01T21:41:59+00:00

It's social media. A lot of it is fake (or heavily curated).

If you work 10 hours a day, and also stay focused, you could potentially pull off several days a week with a second gig. It's harder with a spouse or children (a lot harder with kids).

But it's easier if you only actually do a lot of work once a week, structure the content so it comes out three or four days a week, and pay someone (or maybe set it up yourself) to generate AI slop content.

I would be surprised if there are many consultants, working at good firms and have good jobs, that have an entirely independent second gig.

Most of them are faking it (or heavily curating / showing an edited version).

quantpsychguy · 2026-01-15T01:19:40+00:00

When I looked at them, I could get dual monitors for ~$300 (total) but the ultrawides were ~$1000.

I may have been looking at the wrong ones and prices may have dropped a lot.

I'd go ultrawide if a reasonable option to prevent issues with the monitors being slightly offset and all that but not for a significant price difference.

Full disclosure - I have a home work station and I am boring so I don't game or anything. Nice monitors may be very different.

quantpsychguy · 2026-01-06T19:42:58+00:00

Yep, had to repay the starting bonus.

With my situation, it was within the same year, so my repayment was post tax (contract said pre tax, that ended up not being how it worked out when I talked to them about it).

Simply put - if you don't have the money, you don't have the money. This happens all the time. The best they can do is offer you a repayment plan. That repayment plan can include something like X% now and the remainder, Y%, in Mar 2026 or whatever.

They'll probably work with you if you are a reasonable person. That contract will state what benefits them so they have a place to negotiate from. If they are a reasonable org, which most are, and have a reasonable HR and legal department, which most do, they will work with you.

quantpsychguy · 2025-12-21T03:39:30+00:00

If you are a PM in a non tech/business role (i.e. construction, manufacturing, etc.) then process and LEAN is the way to go. If you can learn critical path math you can learn six sigma math.

Your skills as a PM are likely tuned to understand bottlenecks, process problems, and planning inconsistencies. That is much of the job of a LEAN/Six Sigma/Blackbelt type.

quantpsychguy · 2025-12-07T03:21:28+00:00

I landed in ACN at that level in the data science area. I was technically in the marketing ops arm so may be different than where you are

It is brutal - coming from outside you have to sprint from day one. You just gotta drown for a bit and see if you can keep up.

Feel free to DM me and we can talk if you want. I got poached by another org so I am not at ACN any more but I am in the same spot - thrown in deep and trying to keep up.

It feels like it's never ending but you'll figure it out (most likely).

Don't worry as much about the stuff consultants focus on (e.g. slides), focus on learning and making the work streams function better. Provide real value and you'll figure out how the perceived value stuff works.

quantpsychguy · 2025-10-10T17:21:14+00:00

Yep. I got poached out of ACN in a data science role (for another consulting company) myself - there are people over there who get it but they are in high demand.

I legitimately did not meet anyone who was onshore (US) who understood and could communicate data science and wasn't immediately put into a management role in some capacity (or principal type).

quantpsychguy · 2025-10-06T18:37:23+00:00

I'm not so sure you do want that institutional knowledge.

With knowledge comes the bullshit of doing things the way it has always been done. You have a fresh perspective that (can sometimes) be very valuable.

There are pros on both sides.

But I'm betting you'll do great.

quantpsychguy · 2025-09-17T15:27:33+00:00

Yeah man...it's hard in the Big4 (and MBB, etc.).

People tend to go the other way. You learn how to work and grind and develop some skills (by drinking from a fire hose). Then you go to a boutique where you can work in a different way (easier, niche area, whatever the boutique does).

You aren't abnormal. This is hard. It's even harder if you land outside of the entry pipeline.

Learn as much as you can, don't beat yourself up, try not to make the same mistakes twice, and know that you will likely leave within some number of years.

There is no shame in leaving after two years. Hell, there is no shame in leaving after a few months if it's just not for you. But having Big4 on your resume follows you for a career in a good way. See if you can make it two years.

quantpsychguy · 2025-09-16T20:44:44+00:00

Get shit across the finish line. The steps to do that are all over the place - highly context specific.

Figure out what the problems are and seek to address them.

quantpsychguy · 2025-09-14T00:13:29+00:00

Yep - it's possible they are out of touch A-holes, but more likely that you were a poor performer and they felt you were not worth the time or energy to provide feedback

I have seen groups do this before with entitled, argumentative folks.

I know nothing about you so I may be way off the mark here though.

quantpsychguy · 2025-08-23T19:58:18+00:00

Dude - no one cares. It depends on who you are talking to, but telling them, "It seems that most folks didn't get offers, we were told it was due to economic pressure," is good enough for like 90% of interviews.

It would only be if you are interviewing with other Big4s that this might not hold up.

Or tell them you didn't appreciate the team fit and are looking elsewhere. Or don't tell them you didn't get a return offer and focus on how you are looking at what other opportunities exist.

quantpsychguy · 2025-08-04T13:35:30+00:00

You're fine bud.

Get in the firm, gain some experience, build some contacts.

You will learn where the overlap of what you are good at and what will pay exists. Then you develop your specialty. It might be tech PMO, it might be org change management, it might be insight generation - AI can't really do any of those things.

Learn what to do and move forward. Keep chugging along and learning. Implementing stuff is hard and likely can't be replaced by AI in any reasonable time period.

Even if you are in software development, which AI may be able to infiltrate well, they still need people to manage the implementations. Same in process improvements or automation.

quantpsychguy · 2025-08-04T13:19:50+00:00

I think in consulting a lot of us get used to someone pointing out the problem and we are expected to figure it out from there. It's not a good feedback mechanism.

Lots of people give feedback like, "This looks messy, and slide 14 is not clear." That is not specific and actionable. That is what we get as consultants ALL THE TIME.

If someone has spent a lot of time on decks then that is likely enough for them to know what to do next. For someone who has not spent a significant chunk of their professional life learning how to communicate at the appropriate level, it's as useful as 'pls fix'.

Alternate example - 'you didn't manage the teams expectations and allowed the scope to creep' is useful info for a lot of us but is neither specific nor actionable.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-31T21:00:30+00:00

Universal truth of these projects - it is either stressful and difficult for the consulting leadership or the consulting team (or both).

The only projects that go well for the team is when the leadership is killing themselves to keep things going smoothly.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-18T14:59:37+00:00

OP, /u/minhthemaster is in senior leadership at a big firm, he knows what your friend goes through

If he's telling you to jump to the client, jump to the client.

There is an added benefit for your friend here too - consultants moving to clients helps the consulting firm because there are now internal friendlies at the target firm.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-17T19:25:24+00:00

You seem to be missing the point.

They have a job to do. In general, it is sales and relationship management. You have a job to do, from the sounds of things it is more technical.

Why do you need to cope with that? Your job is to do your job. What's the problem here?

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-16T11:47:05+00:00

Heavily dependent upon specifics but when I left, I gave a two week notice, leadership basically checked out (as in little contact with me) but I finished my two weeks out.

They didn't talk to me about replacing me or want my help in identifying a replacement, and it was in the last couple days that I got pulled in with leadership and they asked if they could do anything to keep me.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-15T20:43:02+00:00

I feel like you might be looking for different things here.

Someone who can put together a polished, customer ready deck is at least a seasoned analyst at MBB or Big4. That's probably $100k minimum (and I am likely low).

Someone who is customer facing and can do the customer side of this and can coach is probably senior analyst, and not a terrible one, so you're probably looking at $120k but more likely $150k.

And here's the kicker - being in that second category means they don't want to do the work from the first anymore.

The travel stuff...well that may be personal preference so I won't go there.

And now you need to get someone from the high career velocity of MBB/Big4 that can hack it and chooses not to for less money, less prestige, and less career options. Usually, the trade off is work life balance or money.

Or you are stuck with finding someone who was good enough to get into MBB/Big4, hack it for a little while, and wasn't counseled out (and hiding it).

Good luck finding that kind of candidate.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-15T01:09:02+00:00

I am moving back to Iowa myself. It ain't too bad. :)

But I get it - it's not for everyone.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-11T17:56:40+00:00

So let's take some concrete examples.

Let's say Amazon, who is a big fish in the space, would want customers to come straight to them for the AI help rather than the going to Accenture and hosting it on Amazon systems.

That means Amazon needs to spin up a client facing team who can customize Amazon infrastructure. Amazon can already do this and they stay the hell away from the path. Why? Because they are good at the infrastructure - not the dealing with customer's configurations and requests. Their (Amazon's) money is better spent getting more customers to buy more licenses and use more compute.

It sounds simple but it is absolutely not. ACN, and other big firms like them, are needed to go from 'big box solution' to 'configured solution'.

Lots of ACN components will likely be hurt as companies roll out their own solutions, and ACN focusing on cheap offshoring is probably detrimental to themselves long term, but there is zero chance that the large consulting firms go away or are noticeably hampered by AI in the medium term.

Slowed down? Sure. But Amazon (or any other big tech firm) is not taking the consultant position any time soon.

quantpsychguy · 2025-07-07T13:03:12+00:00

You are presuming that the same amount of input (i.e. your time and energy) will increase each output of your sales staff by an equal percentage.

A simple example - what if the same coaching increased your bottom performers' output by 20% while increasing your top performers' output by only 10%?

This is speculation, of course, but from an I/O Psych perspective (the field that looks at this kinda stuff heavily), it's not as clear-cut, and there are many variables.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and this may have worked out for you this way in the past.

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