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Overview

Introduction

“The culture at Back Bay is one like I have never experienced in my professional career; the willingness to support one another as well as the opportunity to grow professionally and personally is one that truly sets Back Bay apart as the premier life science strategy and transaction advisory firm.”

Back Bay Life Science Advisors is a multiyear top-ranked boutique consultancy offering a unique mix of life science consulting and investment banking—an intersection that appears to be proving particularly lucrative, judgin...

Company Stats


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Employer Type

LLC

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Size

11-50 Employees

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Major Departments/Practice Areas

Biopharma, medtech and healthtech development, product pipeline and...
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Major Office Locations

Boston, MA (HQ)
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Vault Verdict

An established boutique with a global footprint in a booming market, Back Bay seems well set for continued growth in the immediate to mid-term future. In addition to growth in North America, recent high points include expansion throughout Europe—all of which offers potential consultants the chance to play a role in shaping the future of medicine and treatments from emerging to mid-size and large public companies around the world. 

Day to day, the firm’s size enables a high degree of transparency and responsiveness from senior leaders; this is a firm where every insider has the opportunity to be heard. While that scale sometimes translates to a lack of internal processes and some long working hours during crunch periods, quality of life seems to be very much ...

About the Company

Back Bay Life Science Advisors provides life science strategy and investment banking to pharma, biotech, medtech, and healthtech companies around the globe. Back Bay collaborates with investors, banks, academia, and government to advance treatments in human care. 

From its offices in Boston, Back Bay teams provide consulting services to those on the forefront of the ever-evolving field of life sciences.

Back Bay works with companies of all sizes across the US and global life science markets, across every stage, sector, geography and therapeutic area. Back Bay strategy and banking teams guide companies on technology and drug development, from planning and initial concept to product commercialization, franchising and licensing, M&A, divestiture, and more.

With headquarters in Bost...

Employee Reviews


  • “Back Bay is uniquely positioned to be the translator between the business and science elements of a successful Life Sciences company strategy. Having both the financial and scientific domain expertise allows us to better address the specific diligence questions on both “sides of the house’’ and position companies best for their growth.”
  • “Investing in interpersonal relationships is firmly rooted in Back Bay's culture, which takes the form of frequent office-wide outings, office lunches, and informal hanging-out outside of the office.”
  • “Our senior team ultimately is highly flexible and listens to its employees. They are open to just about any change or suggestion that is proposed from the junior team and are supportive of people pushing initiatives forward that are important to the employee.”
  • “The culture at Back Bay is one like I have never experienced in my professional career; the willingness to support one another as well as the opportunity to grow professionally and personally is one that truly sets Back Bay apart as the premier life science strategy and transaction advisory firm.”
  • “When you sit back and actually think about how many days/hours are going to be spent working during your career, regardless of what industry, you realize how important the people around will be to your overall quality of life. That's why Back Bay's dedication to adding top talent with genuine kindness helps them stand out.”

Getting Hired Here


  • “Generally, there is an initial first round interview over the phone, or potentially on-campus if we are doing on-campus recruiting at a particular school. That initial interview includes a discussion around the resume and interest in the firm and also includes a market sizing exercise and time for questions at the end. 
  • Within about a week, we try to make a decision as to whether we want to bring that candidate in for final rounds to meet more of the team. Given we are a boutique firm with ~30 people, we like to have candidates meet with as many people as possible; each person is a significant contributor to the company and culture. For final rounds, candidates meet with groups of analysts/consultants, project managers, and partners, and then do an additional 1-2 cases that are more in-depth than the first round case. Following that, we try to make decisions within 1-2 weeks, but it's a bit dependent on how many positions we are trying to fill, how many candidates we have actively interviewing, etc.
  • In terms of what we're looking for, for entry-level folks we are looking for people with a demonstrated interest in the life sciences. That doesn't necessarily mean that the candidate has to have multiple or even one biopharma internship experience to talk about, as those opportunities are not always accessible. Therefore, are there other ways that the candidate demonstrated an interest, such as via scientific research, participation in a consulting club, or even just talking about recent headlines and other interesting industry events.”
  • “Generally, Back Bay seeks intellectually stimulated and curious individuals with educational/internship background in the life sciences and interest/internship experience in business. We typically recruit from select top US universities/institutions and Boston schools as a whole.”
  • “[Firm is seeking] strong background in both life science and finance. Naturally curious about science and biotech.  Previous consulting experience is preferred, but we are happy to train people from the ground up. PhD is a bonus but not required.” 
  • The firm's interview process is quite extensive and holistic, as candidates will meet almost everyone at the firm before we conduct a roundtable to come to a decision. We strive to give offers to exceptional candidates who have had great conversations with everyone on the team, and will typically see a poor conversation as a red-flag. The ideal candidate is one with intellectual curiosity and ability to speak to scientific processes, methods, news etc.
  • "The first round is typically a high-level phone screen, then the second will progress to a series of a few virtual behavioral + case interviews with members of the team. Final round interviews will be onsite if possible, with more robust cases and meeting senior management.
  • The ideal candidate has business knowledge alongside scientific domain expertise. Since we often have to digest complex science in short amounts of time, candidates who can quickly get up to speed with a range of therapeutic areas and synthesize large amounts of information tend to be the ones who succeed best at the firm."
  • “We are a small firm, but during the interview process candidates get the opportunity to meet with ~90% of the company. The dedication of the team to care enough about company culture to take the time out of their day for frequent interviews always impresses me.”

Perks & Benefits


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