- Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much for joining us today,
we have a super exciting panel.
I'm Tina, I'm a second year MPH student
in the Health Policy
Management Constitution.
I'm the Vice President
of the HCO Organization.
We have Erick, who's the President HCO
and Pinkey who is the Treasurer
and then we have Dr. Pagan,
the Chair of the Health Policy
and Management Department.
So first, I will let Dr.
Pagan, say a few words
and then Erick can introduce HCO
and Pinkey can introduce yourself.
- Thank you, Tina.
Warm welcome, basically we have wanted
to do something like this for all of you,
so that you get a sense of how
the different career pathways
that our students have
taken, our graduates
and I'm very happy they all
they all answer the call,
to be in the frontlines
for duty and duties.
So I'm very excited about this,
I hope that this panel
is useful to all of you
and let's get started.
- So, hello, everyone.
Thank you again for joining us today.
Essentially, HCO is a student
led organization centered
around the professional development
and relationship building for our members
and we do this through
skill building workshops,
career panels, Speaker events
and various networking
opportunities across
the various healthcare
industries which include
but are not limited to
the consulting industry,
nonprofit pharmaceutical industry
and the hospital industry.
We recently sent out an email
blasts with the applications
for next year's HCO E-Board.
So please look out for those.
We'll be accepting them until
tomorrow May 6th at 11 a.m.
and feel free to reach out to us
if you have any questions about that.
And for new students next year,
please look out for emails from Andrea
and from NYU GPH for next year's HCO.
So you can be a part of our organization.
I thank you again and with
that, I'd like to hand it off
to Tina and Pinkey, who
will moderate the questions,
for our guests.
- Thank you, Erick, I just
wanted to let everyone know that,
the questions will be open throughout,
so feel free to write your
questions as they come up to you
and we'll be asking them
between what you guys have asked
and a few questions that
the board has curated.
- Okay, cool, so to begin,
we'll have the panelists
introduce themselves
and what year you guys are,
what concentration, where you work now
and we'll go in a specific order.
So in order I see on the
panelists is Vivienne's first
then Blair, then Akshatta,
then Sheena Thakkar and Ramon.
So, yeah, so maybe.
- Oh, me first, okay.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Vivienne was part of the Class of 2018
for Health Policy and Management
with a concentration in management.
I just started brand new
gig about a month ago
at cross x Health Solutions,
the data analytics company.
The main product is essentially
linking consumer data
to health patient data to
kind of like derive insights
into patient behavior and
kind of use that towards
like healthcare marketing and
kind of this shift towards
consumer-driven health care
that we're seeing in
the space today, yeah.
- Everyone, I'm Blair, so I
actually did not go to NYU,
but I graduated last spring from Tulane
with my MSPH and Biostatistics.
And from there, I've
been working at Mercer
and their healthcare consulting
area of business since then.
So looking forward to being
an outsider on the panel.
(chuckles)
- Hallo, everyone, I am
actually Akshatta Dahake.
I graduated in 2019 from NYU.
I currently work at NYC
Health and Hospitals
as an Assistant Director
in Managed Care Operations.
So I handle everything operations
related to patient transportation,
which involves but is not
limited to ambulance services.
And it's proved to be a
crucial part in the crisis
that we are in today when we have to move
large patient volumes across New York City
in response to the COVID-19 search.
- Hi everyone, Sheena Thakkar,
I graduated with my MPH from NYU in 2019,
which was last year and I concentrated
on the management track.
I right after I started working at Pfizer
and I've been there since and my title is
a Manager in Global Health
Economics and Outcomes Research.
And that's it's within the patient health,
and impact group advisor.
And I support specifically
the internal medicine division
and specific more a drug
called aneurysm app,
which we'll be launching early next year.
- Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Ekemini Isaiah,
I work at Avellino healthcare
consulting firm out
of Washington, D.C. but I
actually work here in New York.
I'm a consultant one at Avellion
been there for about two years working
in our federal and state policy practice,
predominantly working
on federal healthcare
with a focus on drug pricing reform.
Prior to Avellion, I
worked at sex policy group,
which is a boutique health
policy Consulting firm
in New York City actually
really close to NYU,
graduated in 2018 from the MPH program
in the Health Policy
Management concentration
with the focus of a course health policy.
Very excited to answer some questions
and give you guys some insight.
- Everybody, my name is Ramon Alvarez
I'm a network analyst at Unitas,
Unitas create created a platform
that connects social services
to health care services.
To make sure that
patients receive services
to address their social
determinants of needs.
I along with Sheena, I'm
part of last year's cohort.
So I graduated in May and I concentrated
and healthcare policy.
- So, our first question is
and don't forget the audience,
like keep putting in
questions as you get them.
Why did you choose the
industry that you're in
and how did you go about finding a role
within that industry?
So you can start in the same
order with Vivienne first?
- Yeah, of course,
so I had always been
interested in health tech,
but actually, weirdly
enough, when I graduated,
I actually started off
in healthcare consulting.
That's how I met Blair, one of
the felt my fellow panelists,
I was there for about two years
doing a lot of work around
like health and benefits
and employer solutions
for healthcare access.
And then I got exposed to a lot of
what we call point solutions.
So, a lot of startups in the space
trying to kinda fill the gaps
in care that public services
cannot really or don't
have the resources to,
so a lot of private and
public sector partnerships
and seeing how these kind of like niche,
how these niche markets like fit
into individual patient's needs,
whether it be like a diabetes solution,
like a modern new, I'm
sure you've seen ads about
or like talk space.
And so, I became really interested
in the consumer-directed
health care space.
And then that's what led
me to my position now
and I've already lost track
of what the question was.
He said you can.
- Yeah, sure, so why did you
choose industry that you're in
and how did you go about finding a role
within that industry?
- Right, so how I went about it.
So I think I have kind
of a unique experience
in the fact that I got my
job while in quarantine,
I've literally never
set foot in the office
haven't met anyone in person.
(chuckles)
So it was a lot of online networking,
a lot of aggressive LinkedIn messaging
and leveraging the network
that you have currently
because everyone is trying really hard
to stay connected as
best they can right now.
So, people are now is a better time
than ever to just cold call and reach out
'cause everyone's really just
open to talking to anybody
at this point 'cause we're
all just alone in our places.
One resource that I think can
I put something in the chat?
- [Tina] Okay.
- Okay, I'm a part of a networking group
called Healthcare Club.
And we actually just released
a repository of healthcare
related companies in the New York City
area that are actually
hiring and have proven
hiring through COVID-19.
'Cause as we know, with just kind of
the unstable state of the
economy, we're not really sure
who's actually hiring like
job wrecks that are up,
that seem open are actually
put on hold on the side.
So the networking group
that I'm a part of,
actually created a central
repository for people
who are posting active wrecks
that they're looking for.
So I think there'll be a really
useful resource for anyone
who's searching right now
for a full time opportunity.
(mumbles)
Perfect, okay, Blair.
- Okay, so I graduated last May,
like I mentioned earlier and truthfully,
I didn't really know
exactly what I wanted to do.
I was kind of applying to jobs,
kind of all over the place.
My focus was biostatistics
and my past internship
experience is all kinds of
project management, data analytics.
So pretty much anything with
those words in the title
I was applying for.
So kind of once I started
narrowing down the field,
once I started interviewing,
something that really
caught my eye about Mercer
was just kind of, it's
something new every day
because you work on various client teams.
Every client has different needs,
so you're never doing the same
thing over and over again,
which was something that appealed to me.
And it also is very analytical,
which is obviously what
I did most of my work
and my master's was kind of
answered analytics and data.
So it's not as hands
on as what I worked on
during my degree.
But I think it's a nice balance
of using those base analytical
skills and people skills
and kind of just finding
solutions for various problems.
So for me, it was really about
kind of the right balance
of what I was looking for
and all these different jobs
and really had everything
kind of wrapped up into one.
So that's kind of how
I landed where I was,
in terms of how I got here
and the application interview process.
Like I said, I was kind
of all over the place,
I didn't really know what I
wanted to do specifically.
So it was a lot of speaking to people
who had graduated before me
kind of getting their viewpoint
on what they were doing
for work, what they liked,
what aspects of it they liked.
Just kind of advice on workplaces,
they think they thought
workplaces did a good job
of to make employees comfortable.
So really, a lot of speaking
people in my network,
like they mentioned cold calls
and just kind of messaging people to see,
what they liked about their companies
and getting a feel for what
would be the best fit for me
and ultimately, after a long process
and a lot of self-reflection,
kind of landed at Mercer.
- Awesome, thanks, Blair.
Akshatta.
- So I was always interested
in quality improvement
and to be involved in quality improvement.
I did my internship on
an asthma quality improvement project.
So that's what I was looking to work in,
when I was looking for positions
I networked with professors
or reached out to professors,
so there was Dr. Pagan,
Dr. André Goodman and all the instructors
of my various classes
that I could reach out to,
so coincidentally, my
continuous quality improvement
class instructor also worked
in NYC, helping hospitals
and she reached out to
me with an open position
and that's how I got
connected with this position,
it was not in quality improvement,
but it had a lot of aspects
of performance evaluation.
So, like I mentioned before,
I work with patient transportation.
So making sure the processes
of ordering transportation
are streamlined and the ambulance shows up
in a timely manner
and patients are transported
to the appropriate
level of care in a timely manner.
So it was very similar
to what I was looking for
and I'm happy that it worked out.
- For real?
that was awesome, Sheena.
- Yeah, so I'll just start off by saying
never would I ever
thought in a million years
that I would end up in the
pharmaceutical industry,
but it was more than I knew
what I didn't want to do
when I was applying for
a position at Pfizer
and an internship at Pfizer.
And so I just wanted to an
internship at a bigger company,
I'd never gotten that experience
before and so I applied.
My internship was also in health economics
and outcomes research, which
now I'll refer to as HR,
because it's really long to say.
And for me, it was really
just that perfect intersection
between like the strategy
and the science like I was,
really, I loved the science,
I loved the research,
but I was very passionate
learning more about the strategy.
And having a position at this company
with that sort of intersection
was what really drove me
to continue on with that sort of work.
How I went about getting my job.
Well, I stuck to it, I was
there ever since my internship,
I can continue on with an internship
and then I became a
contractor and then now became
and I went into the
position that I'm in today,
but how typically people
usually go into it,
is they usually maybe
transition from consulting
or they do start off with an internship
and then continue on.
But, yeah, I think, I
get answer the question.
- Yeah.
- Great.
- Isaiah Ekemini.
- Yeah, I think in terms of health policy,
I've always known that
it's very interdisciplinary
and it's really found in
so many different sectors
of our healthcare or of the world.
So, at NYU that's still the
same, you find it in a GPH,
you find it in Wagner, you
find it in the medical school,
it really requires stakeholders
from across the spectrum
to really come together collaboratively.
So I approached learning in
that cross functional way
and I also loved working
in that cross functional way as well,
really being able to
assess a policy proposal
or regulation or legislation
and seeing the impact of it,
from different stakeholders perspectives,
whether that's from a patient perspective,
provider perspective,
life sciences manufacturer perspective
and being able to really help clients
think through the implications for them.
So to know that I really had
an interest in reading policy,
understanding it and really
thinking of implications
from a rotating lens perspective,
consulting really felt like
the perfect place for me,
because I was able to really help clients
from across the spectrum in that space.
How I got over there?
I think, my role at Adler was very similar
to my role at sex policy
group prior to that,
it was just on a bigger
scale sex policy group
had like 15 people and
now we have over 200,
so really did have the
opportunity to offer up
the same skills just on a broader scale
and really leverage my
LinkedIn network to kind of
get in conversations with
people that were from NYU
and from my undergrad
that also works in there.
But I think when I was looking at SPG
it was really important for me
to leverage the opportunities
at NYU in terms of career development,
really leverage LinkedIn,
leverage my professors,
hearing the different places
that they were researching
or they were getting their news from
and using those places as lodging parts
of where I wanted to search
for my career as a next step.
- Awesome, thanks, Ramon.
- Yes, so I've always been fascinated
in information technology, venture capital
and the startup voice.
So for me, I was really wanted to work
at a small scrappy startup
and given that I love public health,
I really wanted to be in
the healthcare sector.
Unfortunately, my first
job, not unfortunately,
but my first job was more in
Emergency Response Technology,
so public safety, which operates
on the periphery of public health.
So from there, I transitioned
to work at Unitas
which is more public health centric.
But both of those roles, I
was able to find something out
that company who had
previously gone to NYU
and reached out to them on LinkedIn,
use the kind of in person
network to really get
your way into the recruiting office.
So definitely do your job,
everybody to reach out
to people who you see on LinkedIn
work at a specific company,
you will be surprised
where that can get you.
As far as how I went
about finding the role,
I mentioned that but,
yeah, just like a company was mentioning,
wherever your sources of
information are a great way
to really figure out what
you want to specialize in.
For example, since I was it,
I'm fascinated by information technology,
I subscribe to a ton of
health IT, the newsletters
that really just kinda
give you the breaking news
or anything that changes in
regulatory aspects of it.
So, from there you can
really start honing in
on what you really wanna work in.
- Perfect, thanks, Ramon.
And I think Pinkey, might
take a question now from Q&A.
Thank you everyone for
submitting questions.
So one of the ones that
I'm seeing currently
is what are the current trends
that you guys are seeing
in your industry today
and where do you see any room for growth
and expansion there?
- Yeah, I can go first
from a policy perspective,
I think there are like three main buckets
that we're currently seeing
with our clients, right?
The first is COVID-19.
I think we can all say that
most of us were not prepared
in terms of healthcare
systems for COVID-19.
So we're starting to see a lot
of flexibilities coming out
from the federal government
and from the states
to kind of prepare themselves
and kind of just approach it
from a patient access quality
and cost of care perspective.
You're seeing a lot of
flexibilities come out
and regulation and we're starting to see
Congress looking at a
potential fourth bill,
that could offer some type of
additional financial support.
So really helping clients
understand the flexibilities
that are coming from
the federal government
and from the atates
and what that means for drug development,
what that means for access home health,
people that need home infusions
that can't go to the providers
what that means for telehealth
and kind of broadening out
access to that to providers
there to the second bucket
is the elections in 2020.
So a lot of our clients are
kind of really focused on COVID
and either really planning for long-term,
what that means potentially
for drug development
or kind of putting the
bandaid on in terms of access
from a payer perspective,
but we're really trying to
make sure that our clients
are aware of the proposals coming out,
especially from the Biden administration,
that could really take
part if he was elected,
that could really impact
after the election.
So, preparing our clients
for that, for example,
like Medicare expansion, lowering
eligibility from 65 to 60.
What are the implications have that,
across the stakeholder spectrum.
And then I think the
third bucket or policies
that we were discussing
with clients prior to COVID.
A lot of it related to
drug pricing reform.
So, benchmarking prices,
drug pricing in Medicare off
of an international index,
potentially requiring inflation
penalties for providers,
redesigning Medicare Part D,
the benefit to put a cap or
a patient out of pocket cost.
There was so much conversation
coming out of the house
and senate and they were starting
to really align in some proposals.
But I think COVID-19 really
sucks the air out of the room,
when it came to those
conversations are really
forced people to kind of
redirect their priorities.
So it'll be really interesting to see
with the presidential
election that's coming up,
how these proposals that we've spent
so much time investing in,
kind of translates after the election.
So that's what I'm seeing
from a policy perspective
with my clients.
- Definitely going Interesting
to see what happens
with the elections.
Thank you, anybody else
feel free to take it.
- Yeah, I would say be open
to like remote opportunity
is given that everybody's telecommuting,
especially in the healthcare sector
and health tech specifically,
you'll be able to support customers.
If you're in New York City,
you can provide support
for someone in California.
The barrier to entry
for a lot of these roles
has really been removed
just because now you can do
from the comfort of your own home.
So I would definitely say look out
for those remote opportunities
and apply to them,
because once you're in the
company, maybe they would expand
to position in New York City
or wherever you want to go.
So it's all about getting
your foot in the door.
I think there's definitely that
lesson the barrier of entry.
- I agree definitely,
important to stay open to that,
as much as I love to
start post grad in office
remote where it is right now.
Anyone else?
Okay, Tina, take it away
with another question.
- Okay, great, so you
guys did mention like,
what your responsibilities
on your job are.
But if you can, like dig a little deeper
and tell us exactly like, what
your day-to-day looks like,
what your favorite part of
your current job is like,
what are the challenges you face?
That would be helpful.
So we can start with Vivienne, again.
- Yeah, sure, so I'm actually
currently trying to figure out
my day-to-day 'cause I
literally just started
but my official title
like I mentioned before,
is Project Manager in Diva product.
So, Diva is cross axes,
largest product at the moment.
So a lot of my work comes around
like cross functional coordination
between engineering product strategy,
the analysts and then are
also internal consulting firm
'cause we offer these
analytics as a service
as well to a bunch of large clients,
tell them how their campaigns are doing,
give them kind of real time analytics,
so they can pivot their
marketing campaigns
or communication campaigns along the way.
So what I've been actively
involved in mostly
is just a lot of like project
management in general,
which is surprisingly heavy and
data analysis and analytics,
just a lot of like KPI tracking
and holding people accountable.
And then another project
that I'm a part of right now,
is the media push for the
New York City Government
and COVID-19 like those
ads that you're seeing
right now around like,
the steps to staying home and
like the risks of going out
and other communication
that you're seeing on like,
those Hulu commercials that
you can't get away from,
currently working on
that campaign, as well.
So, right now, obviously,
things are a little bit weird
and a lot of people are
putting stuff on pause.
So another large chunk of
my work is also just kind of
like coordinating and prioritizing
how things are gonna get relaunched
when people are a little
bit more comfortable
with resuming their day-to-day functions
and like work as usual.
- That's cool, thanks, Vivienne.
Blair.
- So, my day-to-day is can be
a little bit hard to describe
just because with consulting
kind of, it's unpredictable.
So I'm on a variety of
sized clients as well,
but I tend to work with
mid to large markets.
So the larger employers,
I think the smallest client I have
is like 1500 budget or so.
So it's really kind of your
days are structured around
what your clients are currently needing
or what they're working on.
So a lot of what I'm doing now especially
is really focused on COVID.
So, running modeling for them,
how is this going to impact
their budget, their claims,
like what just how is this
gonna impact the lives
of their workers as well.
Fortunately, we're starting
to look more at returns work
strategies, which is optimistic,
but so it's really a variety
but I would say generally,
it's a lot of project management,
a lot of coordination between
employers, the carriers,
they have vendors that they
use and a lot of analysis
and just kind of analytical things,
being able to come up
with, creative solutions
to whatever issues they have
or being able to build on
current wellness programs
they have, how to get people more engaged,
how to kind of have their benefit programs
run more smoothly.
So it's nice, a lot of it
is obviously team focused
but being able to independently
work on your piece,
share that with the larger group
and just kinda bounce
ideas off each other.
So, kind of a lot of
different skills in one
but it definitely keeps it interesting
and keeps you busy day-to-day.
- Awesome, thanks, Blair.
Akshatta,
- My current responsibilities include,
daily operations related
to patient transportation,
the invoicing in reconciliation
of vendor payments,
budgeting for future
years and newer projects
basically leveraging
transportation in response to surge
sorry, in response to emergencies,
which held true during this pandemic.
I think that would be my
favorite part as well.
I always wanted to be able
to support clinical teams
and see direct impact of my work.
Which kind of held true
during this pandemic
when we had to transport
large volumes of patient
from one of the hardest hit
boroughs in New York City,
which was Queens and we moved
and just redistributed patient volumes
from these hard head hospitals
to the hospitals which had more capacity
and we had some busy days,
but it's good to see all of that slow down
and see the results of our work.
So, yeah, I would say that would
be my favorite part so far.
- Awesome, Sheena.
- Yeah, so, my day-to-day
is a lot of project management,
our team of three people
probably manage 30 projects at once.
And if anybody's interested
HEOR, learning more about HR,
I can definitely give you more details,
but I'll try to capture it quickly here.
HEOR I like to think of
it, it has three pillars.
So, one is real world
evidence, real world data,
one is economic modeling
and predictive modeling.
Then the last one is clinical analysis
or patient reported outcome analysis.
And so a lot of the projects
that we do are building,
developing retrospective
prospective studies
to assess the burden of illness
and the unmet need in the population,
regarding a specific disease state.
So, writing protocols,
implementing the study
doing all sorts of
analysis, that's one aspect.
And we also try to build predictive models
based on that data and
based on the clinical data
of a product and try to
see, implementing a drug
into this population, how
would it impact individuals
from a clinical humanistic
or economic perspective?
So, it's a lot of project
management day-to-day
and developing digital
tools to build these models,
develop writing protocols
for these studies
and then just understanding the results
and trying to build a story
or a strategy around it,
so that the other teams in
the business can take that
and talk to parents, talk to individuals
who might be interested
in taking this product.
And Pfizer's also doing a lot
for the coronavirus crisis
and I've also been placed on a Task Force.
So, besides my work that
I'm doing for the drug,
we're also trying to see
what other predictive models
are out there, like the
model that the White House
is using right now, to
make their decisions,
looking at all sorts of modeling,
and all sorts of data to really assess
and really let the leadership
know what's going on
in the field right now.
- Awesome, thank you,
so seems like a lot of
project management for sure.
Okay, Ekemini.
- Yeah, so as I mentioned
before, I'm a consultant one,
so I act as a Manager
for a lot of the retainer
relationships in the projects that we do.
So retainers are basically
engagements with clients
where on ad hoc basis,
so if they have a question
that they want to propose,
if they want to talk to
subject matter experts,
we can kind of talk to them on,
anytime throughout the year.
And projects are specific
like scientific questions
that they want, to kind
of help them think through
or address at a kinda
qualitative perspective
or in a quantitative manner,
so really help to oversee
that bringing subject
matter expertise to clients,
overseeing the work that
junior staff is doing
and bringing in senior staff
in when necessary to help us
answer these questions,
really doing that for
a spectrum of clients,
as I said before focusing
really on drug pricing reform
and federal health care overall.
I think one of the questions
was what isn't like
the favorite part of the
current work that I do.
And I think it goes back to the fact that,
everyday is very
different, at four o'clock,
something that's coming
out from the administration
or from states and you
never know what it is
and it completely requires you
to kind of just be on your toes
and you're ready to dive in
and be ready to respond to
clients by the next day.
So really being able to be flexible
and constantly learning
something new or constantly
being able to engage in new
opportunities with clients
is really what it excites
me and keeps me going
and it keep me from losing my mind
every once in a while when these clients
sometimes ask for a lot,
but I really do enjoy the pace of it.
And like I said before
that rotating perspective
of being able to work with
so many different clients.
- Perfect, thanks, Ekimini.
Ramon.
- Yeah, I think the key
answer to this question
was really project management.
I think any role that you're
gonna find yourself in,
that is something a vital skill
that you should bring
today you should hone
because there's always a demand
for someone who could
manage multiple reports
across multiple companies or teams.
So definitely try to hone those skills.
As far as my current job responsibilities
as a network analyst,
I'm working specifically
with one of our largest
enterprise customers,
which is Kaiser Permanente.
So Kaiser has an initiative
that they call Thrive Local
and what Thrive Local
does is connect patients,
so Kaiser Permanente
members as they call them,
with social services in their area.
So those social services
include like food banks
to address food
insecurity, transportation,
so non-emergency transportation
so they get to the doctors
offices, education, employment,
anything that we know as a
social determinant health.
What my team does is looks up
those resources in these areas.
So Kaiser has a foothold
in Washington State.
The Northwest which is Portland
and some of Southern Washington,
California, Northern
and Southern California
kinda operate independently,
Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii
and the Mid-Atlantic States.
So Washington, D.C., sub-parts
of suburban in Maryland,
Baltimore and Northern Virginia.
So within all of those
areas were responsible
for finding food banks.
American going to work centers,
so we're somewhere you
can go get resume help,
they'll help you find a job, job searches.
So that is a lot of my current
responsibility before COVID.
So, now that the pandemic
is fully underway
and picking up speed and a
lot of these Southern States,
especially like Georgia and Colorado,
we are looking for resources
that help those affected
by the pandemic that previously
didn't need employment assistance
or people see didn't
weren't food insecure,
find those resources.
So one of my favorite parts of my role is,
being able to apply
those social determinants
of health principles and knowing
how someone who is food insecure
or can't get to the doctor's office
really is lagging in this
other aspect of their life
where clinical care just doesn't cut it.
So, it's definitely applying the doctrine
that we've been taught at
NYU about social Germans,
I often find that in real life.
- Alright, thanks for Ramon.
So we have a lot of questions in the Q&A.
So I'm gonna actually
switch to try to answer
some of those.
So anyone who wants to answer can answer.
So one of our questions says,
did you work while you
were in school and if so,
how many classes and
credits we were taking?
Was it difficult to keep
up with school and work
and also, is it hard to find a
job while you were in school?
- Yes.
(laughs)
So I was fortunate enough to
find a relatively flexible
part-time job at a company I
think that those opportunities
tend to pop up in more of
like the smaller leaner,
more startup kind of companies out there,
Boutique consulting firms, small startups,
like flexible hour like nonprofits
and like kind of care
delivery kind of centers.
So if that's something
that you're interested in,
I would suggest starting
in those in those sectors,
I was lucky enough to be
able to extend my internship
into that part time job.
So it was a little bit of an easier sell
just because they had already
worked with a part-time
and I could show them what like the value
that I could bring to the company.
In terms of balance, it
definitely got a little bit
hairy at times but I think
well, it's been a while,
the normal course load unit is 14 units.
What was it someone please tell me?
- Well...
- Ring flow, okay.
So, I stayed around what was average
and expected up until
graduation and managed
about 30 hours a week.
So it is definitely doable and NYU
is why I think it's greater than Columbia
is because the classes are at night,
so I was able to maintain
a normal work schedule
and not have you no class
interfere with my work at all.
So I do know people who
have worked full-time
while being a full-time student.
I don't think I'd recommend it.
Those people didn't look
like they got enough sleep,
but I mean, it's definitely
possible logistically.
- Yeah, I wholeheartedly
agree with Vivienne,
my first year I did not work,
I was a full-time student
and then when I got my
internship, my second year
I that's when I started
to work about 30 hours.
I think the same thing as you Vivienne
with a full-time academic load.
I agree that the smaller companies
especially like the advocacy groups,
the Boutique consulting firms,
they're a lot more flexible,
but I will say I'm the
one that's putting out
an internship opportunity
is putting it out
understanding that is most
likely going to garner attention
from students that need
that type of flexibility.
So being I was very upfront
with my employer of like,
these are the hours that
I would be able to work.
I think I started from like nine to four
and then I was able to then
like head downtown to NYU
for class straight after,
but I did ask for the
ability to be flexible
like it exams were coming
up and I needed to,
like take some time to study
and they were very
understanding about that.
So just being very upfront
about your expectations
and what you need as a
student understanding
that your academics may need to come first
in certain settings.
Is there any other part of the question
that I'm missing here?
Oh, there are also like
TA Opportunities as well,
that can be you can get
through the university.
So I was a stats TA and GPH
and I was a policy TA
for in GPH and Wagner.
So those are also
opportunities closer to home
that are funded through the university
that are also available to students
that have taken those classes.
- Okay, yeah, I completely
forgot TA, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, even if there
aren't any TA positions
available in GPH, I completely forgot,
I did this a TA for an
undergrad class as well at NYU
and like my undergraduate degree,
so there are opportunities there as well.
Or any of the international
students out there,
in the audience.
So I was an international student
and I couldn't work outside of campus.
So I worked part-time
for 20 hours on campus.
And because it was on campus it was,
I could easily get to classes
and time it was very taxing.
But I still found it
exhausting during exam week.
But yeah, because it was on campus,
you could be very clear with
them in the beginning about
how many hours you can commit to
and what your requirements are.
So it's definitely
possible I work full-time
and then part-time on campus.
So it's possible if you
want to go that route.
- Probably, anyone else.
- I'll just say,
I really, really value
getting field experience,
even if it's unpaid, even if
it's like 10 hours a week.
So I did intern my first two semesters
and my first year one at
a nonprofit organization
and the other one at a startup.
And then I got my internship at Pfizer
and the rule for me to continue
at Pfizer was actually that,
I would have to do full-time.
So, I was also determined
at finishing school
And I was also determined
in continuing my work at
Pfizer to get that experience.
And I'm not gonna lie,
it was not the easiest thing in the world.
But it did end up working
out for me because I ended up
getting a position out of it,
in the position that I wanted.
So it's a very like individual thing.
It depends on what you want
and your field experience.
It depends what you want out of school,
like what do you want to focus on?
Are you able to focus on both
it's a very individual thing,
but hopefully, hearing about what we did,
will encourage you or
discourage you from choosing.
- All right, Pinkey if you have.
- So someone asked,
if they don't have a lot of public health
or analytical experiences,
what are some things
that you guys would recommend
to help boost the resume.
Do you think there's specific
classes they should be taking?
Maybe online classes on Coursera?
Anything specific skills like Python
or art that are required
for your positions?
- Yes, yes, yes.
- Yes.
(chuckles)
Any type of data analytics that
you can get under your belt
automatically pushes you
to the front of the curve,
even if you don't think
that you will want to work
in data analytics, I took almost every EPI
and stats class that I was able to take
and being able to see a policy perspective
and see a question and being
and working with people
in analytics and be in the
data they were able to drive
and connect that for a client
to what that means for them,
in terms of implications is really helpful
and sometimes that knowledge
comes from the classwork,
but also being able to code
and help out and support clients
or we're moving in a place with healthcare
where it's very data driven.
And that is the key skill
that they're looking for,
for lot of their applicants,
so if you can't code
or if you can't do other things,
but you have really
other great attributes,
they may look to someone
else that may be able
to support that.
So I really encourage
you to take advantage
of the great data analytics
that is available at NYU,
taking courses that
are free at the library
or that are on Coursera or I
think there are some other,
like little LinkedIn learning
opportunities and just
get that under your belt.
But also like you should
also be very frequently
at least once a week
scanning job opportunities
and seeing the environment and
what those requirements are.
So like, what they may have required,
I forgot what the old
version of like status was,
but like and what people are using now,
but like state of maybe
out in art maybe in
and if you don't know that,
because you're not aware
of the environment,
you'd be dedicating your time
to something that's outdated.
So constantly like making keeping a list
of what you need to do and
being very honest about
what your gaps are, would
be my recommendation there.
- Yeah--
- I cannot say that enough.
Data Analytics was nowhere
on my job description.
But for the job that I currently have,
but it is part of my everyday
life, you can't escape it.
Like we're moving in the world
where big data dictates everything
and it's like Ekemini said,
"The NYU library has awesome resources."
I would recommend if you're like scared
of like getting into it,
because I know like art can
be a little bit intimidating
'cause it's like, horrendous.
But if I would recommend,
the first place to start
is maybe NYU libraries,
Excel basics, 'cause
everyone should at least have
at least basic analytical skills
of like be look us pivot tables underneath
their belt before they
start looking for jobs.
- Definitely, I would say
you want to be the person
with the answer.
And you want to be the person that people
go look for the answer.
And typically, you have to
know how to manipulate data,
clean it, be able to do pivot tables.
I will plug the data claims
lab that I participated
in my last year.
Yeah, it was a forgotten did a great job.
Getting up and running,
you get a great set of like claims data.
So whatever health insurance companies
and we're hospital sent to
the health insurance company,
so they can get paid.
I would also say check out Tableau.
Tableau has a free student
edition for a year.
That and a ton of like data repositories,
specifically right now the COVID project,
you can go to the covidproject.com.
I think and just download
all this free data
about like testing rates,
deaths and infections.
Also, check out CMS, Center
for Medicaid and Medicaid.
They have what's called the Blue Button
and they have like examples
of their claims data
that you can download freely
and really just play around with it.
Once you get comfortable
and with the software
and you do that by playing around with it.
You'll have a lot more comfort
going into the interview
and being like that, I may
not be like a data analyst,
but I do have that experience
and I'm willing to learn
and we'll definitely get
your food in the door
in many places.
- Yeah, what I always told people,
especially when I was a second year
and I was a first and I
was speaking to first year
like Ramon.
When you're competing for internships,
you're not only competing against people
that are in New York, you're
competing against other people
across the country that are
looking to come to New York
for their summer.
So anything that you can
do to really make yourself
stand out will be really helpful.
And that's a really
good opportunity for you
to sit down with your professors,
sit down with your mentors
and communicate with them to say,
this is the type of job that I want.
This is a list of skills that I have,
helped me identify the gaps that I have,
that would make me a better applicant
and then like talk about
what I can do to better
that whether that's taking a
class or do taking some time
on your own to kind of build
your data analytic skills
and me just being very
honest about with yourself
so that you are best
positioned when it's time
to find a job or to find an internship
at the end of each year.
- Yeah, I'm just want to say one thing.
For me, I wish I took the
advice that everybody just gave,
because I didn't really have
that much data experience
when I was graduating.
And I wish I did explore
that a little bit more.
For me, it's really important
for me to understand the data
because we are gonna get an
Excel file with it all there.
But it's like, how can we tell
a story from this one number?
What does this one number mean?
Or how do we capture trends?
And so, guess being able to
do the data analysis yourself
is great, but also really
being able to understand it
and tell a story is what will
really help you out a lot.
And for me, what I did is actually
when I did come to Pfizer, I
decided to spend an extra 10%
of my time in the data department
and I started doing smaller projects
for people in the data department.
So that gave me that
little bit of understanding
and so I tried my best to really gathered
that sort of information,
that sort of expertise,
even though I did not really
focus on it in my education.
- Definitely (mumbles).
- I actually did the same
thing that Sheena said,
I didn't have any of the data experiences,
but I made sure that I would
leverage my Excel skills
and I would say it was pretty good at it.
Anything that you're trying
to look at any new project
starts with data, you need to
be able to learn how to see
that how to read the
data, how to tell a story.
I started self-learning Tableau.
Like Ramon mentioned,
there are many free resources for Tableau.
I reached out to somebody who works with
NYC Health and Hospitals and kind of hat.
I'm not sure if they had
webinars or something,
but I'm sure there are
free resources for Tableau
that you can leverage and
Tableau looks really pretty
and you can just make
simple data looks so good.
On Tableau server you should totally
make use of those resources.
- I definitely agree, I love
playing around on Tableau
and making it look nicer
and aesthetically pleasing.
We also have a question
specifically for anybody
who's been in the consulting field.
So how much time you're
spending traveling, working
with your clients outside of New York?
- I think I'm used to that,
it's somewhat so much work--
- [Ekemini] I have these playing babies.
- Yeah--
- You guys, I said, we were
just chatting about it so,
- Yeah.
- Prior to this call,
I think it really does
depend on the firm, right?
There are some firms
that I just new giorious
even in the job application
or in the job portal,
they say, if you're not
willing to travel 50%
and this most likely isn't
the position for you.
I will say my traveling does
varied on client-by-client
and varies by the engagement.
So because and mine is
a little bit different
because I actually live in New York
now my company is based in D.C.
So prior to COVID,
I was probably traveling
once or twice a week,
to my either my base
in D.C. or to a client,
but I've had moment months
where I only traveled once
or twice a month.
So it really does vary, I'd say from me
and a policy perspective,
once the House and Senate really get hot
and they come close to
like putting something out
or we know that something
is something biggest
coming out from CMS.
That's when clients really
start to dedicate a lot of funds
towards these types of
projects and support.
So that's when the
activity starts to pick up
a little bit more, but during recess is
and when we're really in times like this,
where the priorities are shifting,
we start to see travel
come down a little bit.
So, the answer is there
really is no right answer.
(giggles)
- And I can speak, to me yet Mercer.
All of my clients, fortunately
are in the Tri-State area
or they're headquartered.
Honestly most of them
within New York City.
So the furthest I've had to go so far
was an hour and a half train
ride on New Jersey Transit.
And it doesn't really
happen too often, obviously.
Typically, this spring time is usually
when we see more client travel,
but that also happened to be the same time
that COVID started picking up.
So we've been doing a
lot of virtual meetings,
but at least for Mercer,
especially the New York office,
you really don't do a lot of travel.
That's far it's all kind of
within a reasonable distance.
Occasionally, you'll see
some travel to health fairs
or if the company is
headquartered elsewhere
and has a main office in New York,
you might go to the
headquarters elsewhere,
but really get to stay
local, which for me is nice.
- Yeah, when I was at Mercer,
I didn't get on the plane too much,
maybe like a couple times a year to visit,
like clients at different
sites if they were like
a multi-site kind of client
that had like other large
office somewhere else.
It wasn't too much travel,
I know that when people talk
about traveling, consulting,
they're generally
looking like the big four
and kinda typical management consulting,
where you spend Monday
through Thursday on site,
which that's what people
normally think about.
But it's obviously not
the only option out there
and it really just depends
on like the culture
of the firm that you're working for.
"Cause, like with Mercer,
they make a concerted effort
to make sure that your
client book is local.
So you can be closer to your
client as much as possible.
I think the, like the only
client that I had outside
of the Tri-State area
that was headquarter was like in Boston.
So, it really does depend
not every consulting
firm is like a Deloitte.
- All right, okay, cool.
So, you might have time for
one or two more questions.
I think something a lot
of people are wondering
is what, a lot of you I
mentioned like data classes,
besides data classes, what
other kinds of classes
do recommend taking.
But also if you can
provide like a key resource
for your field.
So like, ECON really
helped me with my role now.
So if you can like pinpoint that class,
I think that'd be really helpful.
- I construct that, so
because my job includes
a lot of invoicing and budgeting,
I particularly like the
financial management class.
I would say, it's a fairly tough class,
but because of it, I don't feel
the huge numbers that I'm
dealing with right now,
I don't find them as
daunting and it also gave me
a lot more flexibility to work on Excel.
So I would say financial
management is a good class
to keep an eye out for.
- I know you probably
don't want this response,
but I can probably think
of an element out of
or project that I worked
on, out of all my core,
HPM classes that do relate
to my position a lot now.
Like for example, EPI I'm
designing studies left and right.
So I need to know that
terminology biostats
to look at the data, analyze the data,
even financial management, like
we manage the team's budget,
we got a budget and we
have to allocate money
towards different projects based on that.
So that even came into play.
What I would do though,
is really try to get
that really well rounded education
and try to take classes that
are out of your comfort zone,
take classes that are
in your comfort zone,
because if you don't know
what you wanna go into yet,
that's just gonna help you out even more
just getting a flavor of different things
because each closet has its own projects,
you get a taste of what's gonna go like,
what sort of work you might
do in the in the real world.
So that would definitely
be my recommendation
and I'm sure you know
Dr. Pagan and Andrea,
they had help you really get
that well rounded education
during your masters.
- Definitely take classes
out of your comfort zone
like Sheena says, because you
can make mistakes in school,
it's better to know and be
out of your comfort zone
in school than be out of your
comfort zone in real world,
yeah.
- Good, okay, so we will wrap
it up with one more question.
So also anyone who's
like has questions now,
if you guys would be open to
taking questions by email,
you can email your questions,
since we couldn't get
to all of them today.
So we're gonna end it up on one,
what books or podcasts or guys reading
or listening to that you would recommend?
Since we're all at home,
- Yeah, I can start,
so I've actually joined
Oprah's Book Club on Instagram.
(chuckles)
And the Book of the Month
is a "Hidden Valley Road"
by Robert Kolker, which is,
I think, a really great book
on the conversation on mental health.
It kind of goes back to
a family back in the 50s,
with like 12 children and
six of the sons had like,
were diagnosed with schizophrenia.
So it talks about how over time,
the conversation of
mental health has changed
in some ways and hasn't in others.
So I really recommend
either going on checking out
her Instagram page and
being part of the discussion
or checking out the bucket.
It really is a great read so far.
In terms of podcasts, I'm not gonna lie.
Usually I would have a very thorough list
about with COVID-19, my job
requires me to read so much.
I have kind of stepped
back on some of the content
that I allow myself to take in
and I've placed a threshold on it.
But normally, I would listen
to my commute into the city
like the New York times daily podcast.
Rachel Maddow says daily podcast
which is basically an audio recording
of the prior night's
episode, KFS what the health,
not what the hell, but what
the health is a great one too.
I think, especially if
you're getting ready
to start to do interviews,
it's a great way to be
aware of what's happening
in the policy landscape.
And I think they do a really
good job in the first couple,
five or 10 minutes and
really setting the stage,
so if you're not as
familiar with the topic,
you can really listen
to some experts tell you
about the history of it and
then they talk you through it
which I think was really helpful
and like conversing with
people when the of course
the number one conversation
in interviews was like,
what are you interested
in health policy today?
And I was the guy, can tell
you what they talked about
in KFS today and there are a
few others that like a personal
that I don't think is
relevant to this, (mumbles).
(laughs)
But those are the main ones.
- Yeah, what the health is great.
See what else, oh, a16z
is another great podcast,
it's very digestiblet's
by the venture capital Andreessen Horowitz
it's basically very digestible,
16 minutes of just like,
what's hot and trending
in the topic right now
and obviously with like
COVID-19 healthcare,
not just coronavirus,
but healthcare in general
has been in the forefront
of everyone's mind.
So, they're talking a lot
about how like the industry
is responding and what,
what the money is saying
and what we're kind of like
expecting and seeing trends,
as we're moving forward through this
and to these uncertain times.
Bookwise, Sheryl Sandberg,
option B is awesome,
it's about like individual resiliency,
which I think we could all
just use a little dough.
So if at the moment
and if we want to be
really nerdy about it.
It's not new but
Eleanor Roosevelt American
sickness is a must read.
(sighs)
- I am currently rereading Adam Tanner's,
"Our Bodies, Our Data"
how companies make millions
selling our medical records.
It's incredibly nerdy,
but I think it's great,
especially now that my
work is really going
back into medical records.
So I'll just send that much luck
in case somebody wants a fun read.
- Perfect.
- I am not much of a reader.
So I probably would have
skipped this question.
But coincidentally, I was
reading a book before the crisis.
It's called "Bellevue" by David Olshansky.
It's about the history
of Bellevue Hospital,
which is the oldest
public hospital in the US,
I guess and is now part of
NYC Health and Hospitals.
So the book is an interesting
read and given the pandemic,
if anyone is interested
in how New York City
dealt with previous
epidemics of yellow fever,
cholera, have not finished reading it,
but I thought it was
interesting for me for anyone
who wants to.
- Perfect, these are all
awesome recommendations,
I've actually read some of them.
They're super interesting, okay, awesome.
Thank you guys, this is really great
and thank you to the attendees.
Hope everyone learned something
and I hope you have an awesome rest up
almost end of the year.
(giggles)
- Thank you to all the
panelists who participated,
we really appreciate it.
And for the questions that
we were not able to answer,
we are collecting them and we will answer
and we will send an email to all of you.
- [Akshatta] Thank you for having us.
- Thank you so much.
- Bye everyone, thanks everyone.
Bye HCO.
- Thank you again.
