Putnam careers bridge science and strategy consulting, which might sound like your dream job.
Putnam helps global life science companies make strategic choices and bring innovative technology to stakeholders, such as patients and clinicians.
Putnam was formerly known as “Putnam Associates,” but has since become part of Inizio Advisory.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
- An overview of Putnam careers, including work and culture
- Examples of Putnam consulting jobs and career path
- Career opportunities after working at Putnam Associates
- 4 tips on landing Putnam consulting jobs
Let’s get started!
What Does Putnam Do?
Putnam touts itself as uniquely positioned to bridge the complexity of life science and strategy. The firm has extensive experience commercializing life science innovations in more than 45 therapeutic areas.
Putnam serves clients in the life sciences industry, including global biopharmaceutical firms, emerging biotech companies, small and mid-sized biopharmas, and firms that develop other emerging, innovative therapies. Putnam also serves private equity and venture capital firms.
Life sciences firms face challenges across product development, launch, and growth. Putnam has demonstrated success in helping clients through that process.
You could say that Putnam works with clients on the cutting edge of many of the future life-saving therapies you don’t even know about yet!
With over 400 employees, Putnam’s headquarters are near many life sciences clients in Boston. Putnam has 10 locations, including San Francisco, London, Tokyo, New York, and Paris.
Putnam is highly specialized and offers their clients expertise that generalist consulting firms don’t provide. You’ll want to prepare differently for the Putnam application process.
Type of Work You’ll Do in Putnam Careers
In short, Putnam has a lot of offerings. Unlike generalist consulting firms, Putnam is very specific about the firm’s work because they want potential clients to truly understand their deep expertise.
Putnam supports life science clients along their entire product development journey. The firm helps clients improve how they operate internally as well as how clients bring products to market.
Putnam helps clients improve internally in 3 ways:
- Integrated Insights offers bespoke, localized primary and secondary research to support clients’ understanding of markets and potential global strategies.
- Advanced Clinical Technologies provides deep expertise, including technical guidance to support the commercialization of cell and gene therapies.
- Forecasting & Financial Modeling simplifies investment decisions by developing full-scale models or supporting specific components of a financial forecast for innovative therapies.
Once clients are ready to think about how their new product will perform in the market, Putnam offers 3 types of advisory services:
Commercial Strategy
Commercial strategy includes advisory support that prioritizes the clinical impact on patients, including:
- Portfolio, Licensing, and Development: prioritizing the portfolio of opportunities based on their clients’ priorities
- Commercialization and Growth: outlining a full-blown strategy launch program
- Data strategy, analytics, and AI: harnessing analytics to support strategy development and decision-making
Sample project: A market assessment project for a biopharma company would include:
- Creating a “market map” of current and future opportunities for a product
- Estimating the financial value of the opportunity
- Determining drivers of and barriers to success
- Forming strategies and tactics to launch
Value, Pricing, & Access
Value, pricing, and access includes strategies to increase patient access and commercial success:
- Value, Pricing, and Access Strategy: providing a map of all stakeholders in the marketplace and strategies for how to enter the market
- HEOR Evidence Generation: creating plans to generate meaningful evidence that new therapies work as part of an effective launch strategy
- Evidence Synthesis and RWE Generation: interpreting evidence and executing research as needed for clients
Sample project: A value driver analysis project for a new therapy for sleep disorders would include:
- Building an economic model to define revenue and cost drivers
- Performing a gap analysis to identify additional information needed to inform the economic model
- Creating a work plan to gather global insights for the economic model
Medical and Scientific Affairs
Medical and scientific affairs include marketing strategies that incorporate medical and scientific circumstances, including:
- Asset Development: creating frameworks and strategies to gather information and evidence needed to market new therapies
- Launch Strategy: leveraging broad firm expertise in a range of therapies and markets to tailor a launch strategy
- Digital Health and Omnichannel Strategy: developing strategies to harness advanced analytics and AI to improve outcomes
Sample project: A project for a launch assessment for a new vaccine would include:
- Determining a framework to address stakeholder engagement, potential resistance, and local market needs
- Building localized strategies and action plans
That might seem like an overwhelming number of services. And it is! If you’re interested in a Putnam career, you should plan to learn more about each of those types of offerings before you apply.
You won’t necessarily be expected to understand everything about Putnam’s work, but people who are passionate about that work will really stand out in their applications and interviews.
Nail the case & fit interview with strategies from former MBB Interviewers that have helped 89.6% of our clients pass the case interview.
Putnam Careers: Culture & Values
Putnam is known for building a collegial environment. Consultants are not expected to travel constantly, so they can get to know each other fairly well in their home offices. The firm also hosts social events to foster community.
Putnam is known to have a demanding environment and requires long hours, just like other consulting firms.
Putnam’s values are:
- Collaboration: Team. Trust. Compassion.
- Excellence: Set high standards. Develop & retain our people. Exceptional experience.
- Ingenuity: Creative thinking. Resourcefulness. Pushing boundaries.
- Grit: Passion. Perseverance. Effort drives success.
- Diversity: Inclusion. Respect. Better for it.
As you prepare to apply or interview, think about how you exemplify those values. You should prepare examples from your life to demonstrate what those values mean to you.
Putnam performs challenging work, so don’t just think of examples where you led the way and did something amazing. Think about major challenges you’ve faced professionally or in school.
How did you navigate them?
Did you turn the situation around?
Did you exhibit Collaboration, Excellence, Ingenuity, Grit, or Inclusion?
What Does the Putnam Career Path Look Like?
Overall, career progression at Putnam looks similar to that of other consulting firms. In your early years, you build your consulting skills, then you advance to manage projects, and ultimately you grow to maintain client relationships and develop new ones.
Putnam careers are different from general consulting firms in an essential way: if you join Putnam, you will specialize very early in an industry (life sciences) and function (medical product research, clinical trials, product launches).
If you’re considering consulting because you’re drawn to variety and curious about many industries, you may not want to commit to Putnam.
If you’re considering consulting and are passionate about life sciences and the ambiguous world of medical product commercialization, you should consider a career at Putnam.
As an early consultant, there are 2 distinct paths into Putnam:
- Associate Consultant: This is a path for consultants entering as generalists. Generally speaking, finance, economics, and science majors will be the best fit. But don’t let that deter you – Putman welcomes all majors.
- Life Science Consultant: This path is for consultants with advanced degrees in physics, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, engineering, and biomedical engineering. It also includes consultants attaining a postdoctoral degree in the life sciences.
If you’re applying for an undergraduate position or internship, you’ll want to demonstrate your interest in life sciences and related skills. You should reflect your interests and skills in your classwork and activities. Look for ways to highlight the following:
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Extensive quantitative work, such as mathematical, business, or science courses
- Solid analytical capabilities
If you’re applying as an MBA student, Putnam looks for
- Prior work experience in consulting, biotech, or pharma
- Solid analytical capabilities
If you’re applying as an experienced candidate, 2 things will help you stand out:
- An advanced degree, such as an MBA or PhD
- 3 years experience at a top-tier consulting firm with life sciences experience
Exit Opportunities: Where Do Alum Go After Putnam Consulting Jobs?
You will have amazing opportunities if you decide to leave Putnam.
After a few years with Putnam, you will have built a tremendously valuable skill set in a highly specialized industry. No substitute or degree can compare to the experience of focusing on the unique challenges of the life sciences industry.
Your specialized experience will be valued the most in the life sciences practices of larger consulting firms or with life sciences companies.
It’s also possible to leave Putnam and pursue an MBA or other advanced degree to broaden your skill set.
4 Tips to Land Putnam Consulting Jobs
1. Demonstrate Life Sciences Interest or Experience
Candidates passionate about life sciences stand out on their resumes and interviews. If you don’t feel like your resume screams “life sciences high potential,” take some time to see if you can reframe your experiences.
If you’re still exploring a career at Putnam, look for groups you can join at school or online to be more involved in the industry.
Again, you won’t be quizzed on your passion for life sciences. Passion will shine effortlessly from candidates who truly care about the work.
2. Do Your Industry Homework Before An Interview
If you score an interview, read the latest major news in the life sciences. You don’t need to force your knowledge of everything you’ve read into the conversation, but you don’t want to be caught off guard if you don’t know about important recent developments.
You should also read about major product launches and what made them successful. Perhaps even think about interesting questions you would want to ask about those launches. That might be a great way to get your interviewer talking and sharing more about how they think about solving challenges in the life sciences industry.
3. Prepare for Life Sciences Case Interviews
If you get an interview with Putnam, you’ll want to prepare specifically for that interview.
Any consulting interview will include the same core underlying elements, like structuring the problem, analytics, and recommendations. But Putnam interviews will focus on specific kinds of products (highly innovative and complex with high levels of uncertainty), and specific challenges (market launch, not having enough data, no proven distribution model, etc.)
Read extensively about industry successes and failures to get familiar with the challenges you will face at Putnam.
4. Reflect on Putnam’s Values
Remember to incorporate Putnam’s values into your anecdotes about personal experiences. You don’t need to use the exact words from Putnam’s value statements. You almost want your interviewer to nod, thinking “This candidate’s got some grit!”
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In this article, we’ve covered:
- An overview of Putnam, types of work, and culture
- What does the Putnam career path look like
- Different Post-Putnam career opportunities
- 4 ways to land a Putnam consulting job
Still have questions?
If you have more questions about Putnam careers, leave them in the comments below. One of My Consulting Offer’s recruiters will answer them.
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