Consultant Pharmacist | Healthcare Structural Reform | Implement Alternative Healthcare Models | Passionate about Aligning Incentives to Benefit Patients
Last week was my 1-year anniversary at Milliman. How did I get this very non-traditional job as a pharmacist? --- Milliman is an actuarial consulting firm. They have divisions focused on healthcare. These kinds of jobs are not what they talk about in pharmacy school. There are lots of these niche areas that can benefit from a #pharmacist, so how did I find it? In short, the answer was luck, but let me lay out the repeatable steps so you can make your own luck. --- The foundation was what I learned from "The 2-Hour Job Search" by Steve Dalton: 1. Reach out to people I have weak ties with in areas I find interesting 2. Set up informational interviews to learn about their journey and market trends--NOT asking for a job 3. Follow up with most of those people routinely Through just these steps above, I was able to get a fellowship in population health management to kickoff my non-traditional pharmacy career, and then find leads/projects as an independent consultant a few years later. --- The next important step was providing value without asking for (or expecting) anything in return. The tangible examples in my case were answering #pharmacy or general healthcare questions in the Health Tech Nerds slack group, and posting content on LinkedIn every weekday. That value builds up good will in the community/audience, which sometimes returns as #opportunities=luck. The more value you provide to more people, the larger that surface area for luck becomes. Plus you personally get better through the process of doing the work to routinely provide that value. --- One of those people that noticed me happened to be a principal at Milliman that saw the potential for what a pharmacist could contribute to their firm. Your specific results will be different, but follow this strategy long enough and luck is guaranteed to find you.
Appreciate your insights Bryce and congrats on the one year anniversary! Would love more information about how to get involved in the HealthTech Nerds Slack as I am both a nerd and in healthcare 😀
Congratulations, on your 1st year anniversary with us! 🎉 🎉 🎉
As a pharmacist who worked on an actuarial team for many years interacting with various health plan and pharmacy verticals, I found it very rewarding and able to contribute significantly to team value and client success.
Excellent advice! I got my first actuarial internship by reaching out to actuaries in my area (by phone, no LinkedIn then) and just asking if they had a program. That internship led to a recommendation and interview with Milliman.
Thanks for sharing, Bryce Platt, PharmD! We appreciate the value you add to the community through consistent engagement and being willing to share your knowledge with other members, which, as you pointed out, is itself a virtuous cycle. Glad to hear it's coming back around for you. 🙂
Put yourself out there to become known. It’s easier than ever today.
Consistency is key and you're showing it. Congratulations on 1 year!
Thanks for sharing! As someone paving a non-traditional path, this is inspiring. Congrats on 1 year!
Commenting in hopes that it reaches out to the greater and broader Pharmacist community. This is fantastic thank you for sharing!
Strategic Sales Consultant at UnitedHealth Group
2moThese are great tips. I do this (#2) already to "scale" the large organization that is UHG. If someone has an interesting title or team background, I reach out to learn more about them. I've enhanced a few areas with this approach when I identify two groups that can help each other.