Life as a Consultant in Market Access

Why work for Avalere Health?

If you want the perfect balance of interesting and stimulating work that makes a positive difference, while working with great people in an environment that makes you feel valued and allows you to maintain a good work-life balance, this is the place!

Why pursue a career in Market Access?

You genuinely feel like you are making a difference in people’s lives by bringing better treatments and healthcare outcomes to patients. I previously worked in healthcare market research, and I felt quite detached from the actual client decision-making about how to get their treatments to as many patients as possible. In Market Access, clients are coming to you for help with exactly that.

What does it take to succeed in your role?

In short: to listen and to question. The great thing about working in consulting is the variety of projects, but it also means you are always going to be working in topic areas that are unfamiliar to you (for me, this is part of the fun!). This means that listening to team members—whether they are less or more experienced than you—becomes key so you can gather additional perspectives to provide a more robust understanding.

It’s also important to ask questions when something is not completely clear, especially of yourself, when you are developing your own understanding. It’s very rare that you will come up with a perfect solution or insight instantly, so it always helps to question your own ideas and solutions and bring in other people’s thoughts and perspectives along the way. Ultimately, a much stronger solution or insight will be achieved for your client because of this.

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

The feeling that I am truly helping others. Whether that be on an individual level with a team member or at the broader level when you witness how the health intervention you are helping bring to market could eventually help patients. I also love the teamwork and collaborative nature of my role. There is no greater feeling than the collective success, achievement, and happiness that comes from a great team working together to achieve the same goal.

What do you most value in your team?

An open mind. That way you can work through anything together.

How do you maintain a work-life balance?

It may sound strange, but I think becoming a father taught me to have a much better work-life balance. Of course, the ‘life’ bit is a little more hectic nowadays, but the birth of our daughter really put things in perspective for me and I have much clearer boundaries of when I need to stop work. I have also become mindful of taking on more project work and pausing to see if I can feasibly fit it in my schedule. Before becoming a father, I was more relaxed about taking on additional tasks but, overall, it probably meant my time management was worse. Perhaps the key to a successful work-life balance is imagining you have someone to take care of (even if that person is yourself!) and setting clear boundaries for when you need to stop work to focus on this.