It seems that a lot of readers are interested in alternate career opportunities for scientists in the New York area and beyond, so here is something that may (or may not) be of interest to you.

If you are a scientist with a keen interest in business, strategy consulting is a great way to apply many of the problem solving skills you learned during your training. The work is project-based, where a client hires a consulting team to develop solutions for unresolved issues within the company. As a consultant you are able to work in a variety of fields, ranging from healthcare to finance to consumer marketing.

Two consulting companies, McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), offer 3-day training sessions for scientists (Ph.D. students, medical students, postdocs, and fellows), which allow one to determine if consulting is a career path that would interest them. Please note, I do not intend to plug only these two consulting companies, but, to my knowledge, these are the only two companies that offer programs of this nature. Please feel free to share any information on additional training sessions if available.

Information on the Bridge to BCG training session can be found here (application deadline May 8th, 2009).

Information on the McKinsey Insight training session can be found here (application deadline May 13th, 2009).