Vault’s Verdict

If you’re interested in the intersection between healthcare and business, Health Advances is a firm you should consider. Underpinned by its leadership’s commitment to mentoring, onboarding, and formal training opportunities, insiders love that they can progress their careers rapidly while still being their authentic selves.

While some firms may offer higher overall pay, Health Advances consultants frequently say that they earn similar compensation to competitors on an hourly basis because HA provides such an excellent work-life balance. The firm has a flexible hybrid schedule, and leaders hold themselves accountable for preventing overwork and burnout among their teams.

The firm also has a positive business outlook moving forward. After two difficult years due to macroeconomic trends that deeply affected its clients, insiders say it’s on the right track to continue growing and innovating as it implements structural reforms with its eye on long-term success.

Firm Culture

• “Everyone is smart and driven, but crucially, everyone wants to bring others along with them. There is zero sense of trying to gain from someone else's loss or that one person's success reduces the chances for someone else.”
• “We have so much freedom for everyone to be themselves, and the firm celebrates all of our differences through cultural events and lunches in a clear effort to be inclusive.”
• “The firm has a culture of letting individuals spend time on their own wellness and with their families. It is easy to take time off if you give appropriate notice. The people genuinely care about each other.”
• “We are seeking strong communicators and critical thinkers with experience in the technical life sciences and ability to extend that experience to business applications.”

Quality of Life

• “While consulting is a client-service business, and we have high-hour weeks, we have a lot of measures in place to support work-life balance. We do not have to work on-site, so travel is sustainable. Our management team watches out for continued high hours and provides break weeks to ensure no one burns out.”
• “Health Advances values their employees' time. The firm is respectful of any commitments employees have outside of work and will schedule client calls outside of these times.”
• “The firm pays genuine attention to staffing and how many asks a person is given. People genuinely do not expect and do not want you to overstretch yourself and instead will look to manage scope as necessary to keep people from having to constantly burn the midnight oil.”
• “Typically, consultants can expect to average around 50 hours per week, with peaks reaching up to 60 hours based on client demands.”

Career Development

• “Promotion can be relatively quick for very high performers but typically happens on a defined timeline. Training is very extensive, prepares analysts well, and nobody is thrown in the deep end and told to figure it out. Training also continues past entry-level hiring.”
• “The formal training is unmatched. The extensive new hire program lasts eight weeks and involves formal training modules, an independent project, shadowing real casework, a team-based capstone project, and multiple informal networking and culture-building events.”
• “Leadership at Health Advances is extremely committed to the professional development and growth of its employees. I have received extensive one-on-one mentorship and guidance from both my formally assigned mentor and the informal mentors that I work with frequently.”
• “The firm has a culture of providing extensive verbal and written feedback. Promotions happen on four occasions throughout the year and are based on performance as opposed to tenure in the role.”

Compensation

• “Health Advances offers annual bonuses based on merit as well as firm performance over the past year. Additionally, employees received a larger than normal merit-based raise this past year to make up for a couple of years of salary stagnation.”
• “Salary progression and raises are generally strong, however slow business has meant no bonuses for the last two cycles.”
• “Compensation could certainly be higher when compared to other firms, but we probably have better work-life balance, so in my view, it evens out.”
• “The compensation increases dramatically when you become a team leader (reasonably so). I believe that it is competitive with other companies in a similar space.”

Community Engagement

• “HA does a fantastic job on DEI. Our firm's leadership is organically majority women. We have multiple events across the year to celebrate different cultures and nationalities. We do a pride month activity and do regular community service events.”
• “Access to high-quality work and promotion opportunities feels clearly merit-based, giving equal opportunities to people of different ethnicities, genders, and sexualities. Health Advances has frequent initiatives to increase DEI awareness and efforts as well.”
• “Look at our leadership team on our website: It's a highly diverse group. We have a DEI committee that promotes and supports affinity groups at the organization.”
• “The firm actively supports and encourages employees to do what is best for their mental health, including breaks, time out of the office, and out-of-office runs and other activities.”

Business Outlook/DEI

• “The firm provides excellent deliverables, leading to many repeat clients. Leadership appropriately reorganized in a difficult business environment and drove new project wins. Innovation is a little slower here than at some competitors, but we never compromise quality for speed of innovation.”
• “The business outlook is growing more positive than in the past, and morale seems to be going up. I appreciate management's willingness to be transparent with quarterly business updates through the past couple years.”
• “The firm has put a ton of effort put into business development over the last two years during the economic slowdown, which I believe will have a really high payout.”
• “The firm outlook for Health Advances is very healthy. There has been a consistent stream of projects coming in across a wide variety of clients, new and old, and industries. We have also recently transitioned to a traditional managing partner leadership structure, which has really driven high levels of firm business development growth over the past six months.”

Hiring Process

• “Advanced Health has a very good and respectful interview and callback process. All interviewers were very kind and professional, and I continue to see it in interviews today.”
• “The interview process typically begins with a first-round case interview, followed by a second round consisting of three additional case interviews. Each interview starts with behavioral questions. Ideal candidates should have a compelling rationale for pursuing a career in healthcare and a clear interest in Health Advances.”
• “We are looking for candidates who are driven, team players, and have a strong interest in healthcare. The culture of the firm is more collegial than cutthroat, so we also look for a healthy sense of community and collaboration.”
• “I appreciated that the hiring team met with me over Zoom to go over the offer instead of just giving me a phone call and sending me a package of PDFs over email.”

Interview Questions

• “Interviews include a short review of the candidate's background and experience followed by a longer case discussion. Cases are based on the interviewer's real-world experience on a project. Generally, they ask you to develop a framework to understand a product's competitive positioning and sales potential.”
• “Provide a rough outline of how the developer of a precision drug and a companion diagnostic should divide profits from their combined offering.”
• “How would you size the opportunity for a company that is developing a new drug to treat advanced type 2 diabetes?”
• “Think of a time when you had to work with a headstrong co-worker or classmate and tell me how you handled it.”