Beyond the Bio Podcast
Michael Schallehn, a partner in our Silicon Valley office, and Jackie Flanagan, an associate partner in our Washington DC office, discuss their journeys away from academia and into consulting—how their backgrounds have contributed to their long-term success and the evolution of Advanced Degree recruiting and programming.
It can be hard to imagine spending years of research in a PhD program, successfully defending a dissertation and then making a complete career shift to a general management strategy consultant. However, the skillset overlap needed to be successful in both a PhD and in consulting are surprisingly similar, and we have record-high number of PhDs and other non-MBA Advanced Degrees joining us each year.
Michael Schallehn, a partner in our Silicon Valley office, and Jackie Flanagan, an associate partner in our Washington DC office, both joined Bain after completing PhDs – respectively in materials science and in biophysics. Michael and Jackie spent the first few years of their Bain careers working for clients across a wide variety of industries and capability areas – everything from private equity to airplane parts – before beginning to specialize in practice areas that aligned with their research backgrounds. Their exposure to a variety of industries and broad business toolkit they built along the way are key to their long-term success at Bain in their current practice areas. Michael and Jackie also lead our Advanced Degree recruiting and program efforts in North America and are dedicated to the growth of our Advanced Degree hiring numbers while ensuring we are setting them up for success in their careers at Bain and beyond.
Learn more about their journeys away from academia and into consulting, their career paths within Bain, and their leadership efforts of our Advanced Degree program in North America on this episode of Beyond the Bio.
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In Beyond the Bio, Keith Bevans, partner and global head of consultant recruiting, dives deeper into the stories of some extraordinary Bain people, from their perspectives.