Weinberg College
of Arts & Sciences

Waldron Career Conversation with Chandana Sooranahalli '20: Management Consultant and Transfer Alumni

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Chandana Sooranahalli ‘20, who is currently a Management Consultant after Graduating from Northwestern with an Economics Major and a Cognitive Science Minor.

Chandana shares insights on great classes and extracurriculars to consider as an undergrad, the unique challenges and opportunities she had as a transfer student, her experience doing undergraduate research, and her plans of heading to med school through a nontraditional route!

1:00: Northwestern Experience
3:00: Advice as a Transfer Student
4:10: The Value of Extracurriculars
6:10: Changing Career Plans
8:00: Undergraduate Research
10:45: Recruiting for Consulting
14:20: What is Consulting?
16:30: Nontraditional path to Med School
18:10: The Value an Arts & Sciences Education
21:55: Networking at Northwestern
24:40: Challenges as a Transfer Student

Cassie:
Welcome to the Weinberg in the World Podcast, where we bring you stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. This episode is brought to you by the Waldron Student Alumni Connections Program, a resource in Weinberg College where we help current students explore career options through making connections with alumni.
Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Chandana Sooranahalli, who is currently a management consultant after graduating from Northwestern with an econ major and a cognitive science minor in 2020, and she's planning on going back to med school soon. But before we jump into more about her path, welcome, Chandana, to the podcast.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Thank you so much, Cassie, happy to be here.

Cassie:
We're so excited to hear more about your plans and what you're up to today. But we'd love to start with your Northwestern student experience and really dive into what were some of the impactful classes, internships, extracurriculars that you participated in that were impactful for you and your path after graduation?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
I really feel like the most valuable parts of the Northwestern education were just like the classes you wouldn't expect to be. So for me personally, I was able to take a lot of courses outside of my major or that were related to my major that served as an intersection between economics and potential future paths and science. And for example, one of those classes that I would highly recommend to other pre-med students or just students who are interested in healthcare in general if they're able to take it, is economics of medical care. I really thought that was a really interesting and valuable class that allowed me to understand facets of healthcare that you typically wouldn't have exposure to in your more basic science classes, such as how does insurance work? Or how can we assess a treatment from the perspective of how it influences the quality of life?
I would definitely encourage students to really look for classes outside of the typical requirements and just to try them just to see if they could be a potential area of interest in the future. As I know for myself, taking that class really influenced my path moving forward.

Cassie:
Chandana, can I ask you a question about that class?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Yeah.

Cassie:
Because some things I've heard about the transfer student experience, I know you were a transfer student into Northwestern, is that it's hard, you have a shorter amount of time to get everything in to your course load and everything like that. So can you share some advice on how you were able to have an econ major and a cognitive science minor and take some of these interesting courses all in that condensed amount of time?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
I would say it definitely can be challenging, and if it comes down to it, I know that it's sometimes not possible for everyone. But what I've noticed is that there are quite a few classes out there that will satisfy requirements for your major or minor or the core that we have in the College of Arts and Sciences if you just ask your advisor. Sometimes it's not directly communicated and communicated and you have to dig a little deeper in order to get this information.
And that's what I did, I met with my advisor, and so I think this takes a little bit of planning ahead about classes I was interested in and whether it would fit within the different degrees that I was pursuing.

Cassie:
Yeah, that's really helpful, thinking ahead and meeting with an advisor to figure out where you can get courses. Because that sounded like an econ course, but it was the intersection of some of these other places, so probably counted in different ways, which is great and really helpful advice. And I know I cut you off with extracurriculars, tell us more about your extracurriculars.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Totally. I was just going to say that basically, I was more focused on the economic side when I was pursuing extracurriculars at Northwestern, and I think looking back on it, I almost wish I was involved in more extracurriculars. The two primary extracurriculars that I was involved in was like SB, so our business organization specifically in Northwestern Capital Management, and the other organization I was involved in was Northwestern Taekwondo, and both of these extracurriculars were super valuable to me.
I would encourage students to not just pursue clubs that they think will build their resume in a really direct way such as a business club or pre-med organization, but also organizations that cater to their own personal and trust outside of school. Not only do they just help you de-stress and enjoy your time, I feel like they also do really contribute to your growth as a person. And I know that in my application to medical school this year, I talked about Taekwondo on several occasions and how it's contributed to my personal growth and character and things like that. So I would just say that, really just try to be involved in everything and anything that you're interested in.

Cassie:
Yeah, I love that advice, like thinking of organizations to be a part of that have to do with personal growth as well as professional growth. And I know you mentioned as you're applying to medical school, I'm curious, Chandana, when you started at Northwestern, what did you want to do with your career? What was your plan coming into Northwestern? And how has that evolved over your student experience and now your professional experience?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Yeah, definitely. When I entered Northwestern, I would say that I was interested in medicine, but I was leaning towards finance more so. And at the time, I was thinking of potentially pursuing a career in investment banking, which is very different from what I'm even doing now. And participating in capital management was illuminating in many ways because I realized a lot of the aspects were not things that I wanted to continue to do in the future. And that organization was really helpful because there were a lot of pre-professional opportunities, like presentations from members of the community and just other resources outside of just the work that we were doing in the club that allowed me to better understand the field and realized it wasn't for me.
And so like I said, through some of my coursework, I was reintroduced to medicine in different ways and that's what sparked my interest again. But it also sparked my interest in potentially doing something that was an intersection of business and science, and that's where I am right now and where I ended up after college.

Cassie:
That's great, that's really interesting to hear, just the evolution too of thinking through the things you're interested in and where you landed and next steps. And Chandana, the last piece of your student experience that I want to just dive into is, if you did any undergraduate research, and how did that impact your mindset around post-graduation plans?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Definitely. I did do some undergraduate research towards the end of my time at Northwestern, basically the second half of my senior year. And this was around the time when I was a lot more set on pursuing medicine in the future. So it was something I was doing in preparation and to explore my interest in medicine because I know that a lot of medical schools do value research. So I did research specifically in the cognitive science department, which was cool because it double counted as a course. So there's another example of how you can fit things in that you're interested in and also get your requirements done.
And I would say that the research helped me realize that I found cognitive science super interesting still, which I think I always did because otherwise I probably wouldn't minor in it, in that it was potentially something that I might specialize in the future, some of the specialties I'm thinking of are potentially psychiatry or neurology. But it also elucidated to me that I don't think I want to go into research, I enjoyed the experience of doing research, but it wasn't something that I wanted to do full-time. And that definitely influenced what I was planning to do after I graduated.
As initially, I was looking at research assistant positions or clinical or research coordinator positions, and although I do think those would've been really good experiences, I think that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed them as much as my current role. So I do think just doing research can help you decide whether you want to do research longterm or even short term before other potential paths.

Cassie:
Absolutely. I think it's so valuable to learn early on as you're exploring career options, both what you enjoy and what you know probably won't be what you want to do full time as a career. I think that's really valuable to have that self-awareness and pick up on that while you're in college to say, I don't want that to be my job, but I really appreciate this experience and I'm really interested in the concepts, where can I take this from here?
And I'd love to just hear more about where you took it into the consulting path. Can you share a little bit with us about your experience in recruiting into the consulting? Because I know you graduated in 2020, very unique time with some twists and turns to your path. So share with us more about your first job.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
I think just entering consulting is a bit of a process, recruiting for consulting is really just almost like year-long thing that you have to prepare for, and the fall season is just filled with so many interviews and stuff. And this is something that I didn't really know much about and I learned the process through just going to job fairs. So I'd highly recommend attending job fairs as early as you can because even if you're not looking for a job, you could potentially score an internship or something else just from being there.
But that being said, I was interested in recruiting for consulting at the time because I knew for sure that I would need to take at least a gap year before going to medical school. And from exploring at career fairs, I saw there were plenty of consulting firms that were looking for unique backgrounds or were accepting of unique backgrounds, and it didn't require a certain major or a certain field of study as certain other jobs might, and that's the appeal of consulting, I would say to many people.
When I was recruiting for consulting and going to these job fairs and stuff, I realized that there were a few consulting firms that specifically specialized in healthcare, and that was an area of interest to me as someone who is thinking of pursuing medicine in the future and just genuinely interested in staying involved in science. And so I ended up interviewing at a few places and receiving an offer from a healthcare consulting firm, and unfortunately it was rescinded, so I basically started-

Cassie:
It was due to the pandemic? That was like, when, 2020?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
... Yeah, this was around that time. And then I think later, basically I had another connection from another job fair at some point that I was able to leverage instead, and it was at a biotechnology company. So that was really helpful because I was able to still stay involved in something science related. And it was at a biotechnology firm doing operations work, and although it was only an internship, it gave me a footing and led an offer in the future.
And in the meanwhile, while I was completing this internship, I started looking at more consulting opportunities through Handshake since this was the summer. And I think a lot of opportunities sprung back up again, and then I eventually accepted the position that I'm at now.

Cassie:
Yeah, such a unique path, particularly during the beginning of the pandemic, and it seems like you adapted and handled it really well, getting different opportunities and taking an internship still in an area that you were really interested in and continuing your search, and landed at a really interesting role.
Can you share a little bit more about what you're doing, like the ins and outs for our students who might be listening who are just getting onto campus this fall and are like, what is this consulting thing?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Yeah, totally. I think consulting can be a lot of different things depending on the firm, the type of consulting, et cetera. Management consulting is typically working with executives at a company to, I would say, influence business strategy and operations. And the company that I work for specifically works to optimize the delivery and commercialization of drugs and biotechnology. So what that means is a lot of different things depending on the project, I would say, but some of the work we do is forecasting work and typically using an epidemiology-driven approach. So like how many people have this disease? And then how many people would qualify for this drug? And then based off of the different types of insurance and payers, how do we split that out and how do we basically forecast revenue using that?
That's one example of a potential project, but there's so many more involving Salesforce reporting, just analytics market research, talking to physicians and things like that. So there's really no set, I would say, role for a consultant, and I think that's really the appeal of being a consultant because you're constantly doing new and different things, and as a result, you're just learning so much very quickly.

Cassie:
Absolutely. Like a really interesting first role to take in a lot of different business projects and problems and things like that. And, Chandana, I know you have mentioned that you're applying to medical school, I would love to hear just a little bit more about you majored in econ and now you're in management consulting and applying to med school. What has that experience been like with what might be a non-traditional path to med school?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
At first when I was preparing myself to apply to med school, I was a little bit worried how this non-traditional background was going to come across to the admissions committees that are reading my application. I wondered if it looked like unfocused because I had done so many different things. At the same time though, I think I've come to realize that they really do value a diverse set of experiences, and having done something before entering medical school, I just feel like I have an additional experience per se, that's pretty much how I view it.
And I think what's valuable is, this additional experience happens to be in an area that is directly adjacent to medicine. Something like, as I said earlier, we interview physicians and we are talking about therapies every day. So I think that this path, and even going back to the economics major, just help show a unique perspective on a lot of these topics that they could be potentially asking about or that I'm sure we'll encounter in medical school if I were to attend. And I think it just shows an ability to be flexible and pivot quickly and utilize skills in several different ways.

Cassie:
Absolutely. It will be an asset, I'm sure. How do you see the arts and sciences supporting your work?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
I think that there were several classes I took that I would say there isn't a direct application to the work that I'm doing, but I think that it really, really influenced my mindset about how I approach different problems and how I approach learning in general. Two classes that come to mind were bioethics and I took a literature class that was called Science Fiction and Social Justice. And so these two classes, just to highlight the bioethics one first, bioethics would have a more direct application to medicine and management consulting and pharma and biotech as some of the topics are directly related in terms of, like some of the topics that we discussed were abortion, things like that.
These things come up for sure, but I would say that the most valuable skill that I learned from that were to consider perspectives other than my own perspective and opinions that I have. And even if I don't agree with them, I can learn to evaluate them and at least understand why people think the way they do and why people have opinions different than my own. And I think that's a super valuable skill to have regardless of what field you're going into, like you're always going to encounter people who think differently than you do.
And I would say this is similar to what I took away from the science fiction and social justice course as well, which explored different universes and different potential ways of life or ways of thinking. So it fostered diversity and thought, but it also took the next step about what are we going to do about this? In the sense like, there's a lot going on in this world right now, a lot of complications, a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, and there's many different ways to approach this, but what are we going to do about it? How are we going to take the next step and hopefully make some positive improvements?
And so that idea of thinking beyond just the classroom and a course and applying it to the real world and applying it to making a difference and helping other people, I think is extremely important and something that I carry with me whether I'm doing consulting or hopefully practicing medicine in the future.

Cassie:
Yeah, absolutely. What department or program was that course in? That sounds so interesting.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Definitely. I would highly recommend if they're still offering this course that anybody take it, it's called English 388, I believe.

Cassie:
Very cool. That's awesome, that's great. And I want to ask you just a little bit about networking and how this has played into your path because you've shared so many great resources and advice around courses and extracurriculars and things. I'm curious how your Northwestern network has supported your path? And so often we talk about networking and we think, these executives, how have they helped us? But I'm curious if you've had any classmates or peers who have influenced or impacted your career trajectory, whether it'd be specific connections to a job or even conversations with these peers that have helped you figure out what you might want to do.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
That's a great question. I don't think I was able to secure a job talking to a peer or anything like that, I have noticed though, at my company, there are several other Northwestern grads and they ended up there through talking to each other, so it's definitely possible, I will say that. But I definitely think that talking to my peers influenced where I am now, one of my good friends, he just graduated, but he was a computer science major, and I actually met him through taking a computer science class for my cognitive science minor. But I think there were plenty of conversations where we had about, what are we going to do in the future with these degrees? I think for him it was a little bit more concrete as a computer science major, but even at some points he was thinking like, maybe I'll do consulting too.
Just having these conversations about what is out there, you can learn a lot about just different fields and different opportunities that you might not have even considered. And the company that he's actually ending up at now is a company that I also interviewed for, but for a different position. So I think it's just cool that you can study different things and end up in similar places and even end up doing similar things if you have interest in them. So I would definitely encourage talking to your peers about future plans, careers, just everything related to being at Northwestern, because why not?

Cassie:
And it seems like it can be intimidating at times to talk to friends about your plans, but I think you've laid out so many good insights of why it can be valuable to open your eyes to other opportunities and different experiences, and I think that's really hopeful for current students to hear as scary as it may seem at the time.
And Chandana, I know we touched on this a little bit earlier on as a transfer student into Northwestern, but I'm wondering if you have any other insights to share with current students who are transferring into Northwestern about challenges or opportunities that you experienced that affected you and impacted your path that you want to share with those students?

Chandana Sooranahalli:
I think being a transfer student at any school is a very unique experience, it's a pretty small group of people who are transferring each year. That being said, I feel like it can be really easy to just get into your own head about just various aspects of your experience, whether it's imposter syndrome or isolating yourself. I definitely had the mindset in the beginning, I transferred after my first year of college, but credit wise I was a junior, so pretty much everybody I was taking classes with were upper classmen. And what I was experiencing appeared to me like, everybody already has this figured out, they're used to all the academic rigor, they're used to the lay of the land, they already have a group of friends, they already know everybody kind of thing.
And that was just a really, I would say, negative mindset because I think I was just fearful that I wasn't going to fit in, I wasn't going to be able to make friends. And I was sure that I was going to get a good education, but I didn't know if I was going to find happiness here. So I definitely isolated myself in the beginning because of my own mindset, and I would encourage transfer students to really try your best not to do that and put yourself out there, whether that's just getting involved in clubs or introducing yourself to people, talking to people in your classes. I found that most people are super friendly and it doesn't matter that they have a group of friends, so welcome you into your group of friends if you just talk to them.
Just don't hold yourself back because of the fact that you transferred. Because if you're at Northwestern, you're here for a reason, they wanted you to be here, and I think you just need to validate your own feelings and say that you want to be here too. So I would say that, just have confidence in yourself.

Cassie:
Mm-hmm. I love that, I really appreciate that advice. And thank you for sharing more about your experience because it can be isolating and scary and cause a lot of fear. But I think hopefully students who hear your story will, maybe as they're coming onto campus this fall as transfers, put themselves out there one or two more times because they've heard your advice.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
[inaudible 00:27:19].

Cassie:
Chandana ... yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for chatting with us and sharing these great insights. We wish you the best of luck as you apply to med school and can't wait to see where your career goes, so thanks again for being on the podcast.

Chandana Sooranahalli:
Thank you so much, Cassie, it was truly a pleasure and best of luck to all the students who are hearing this and everyone at Northwestern.

Cassie:
Thanks for listening. If you want to hear more of these conversations, links to the full videos and podcasts are below. For more information about Weinberg College and this podcast, visit weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron. As always, we would love to hear your feedback, please email us with your thoughts on the program. Have a great day, and go Cats.