Rising Stars of the Profession 2021: Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy has been with EPAM for 2 years with 10+ years of consulting experience in the Healthcare and Life Sciences industry under his belt.

Andrew spent the majority of 2019-2020 focused on his role as both a driver for presales work and as Project Manager for a 7+ month long, multi-million dollar (~$3M) client project involving a multi-discipline, onsite-offshore hybrid team, for a major Biotech company. Andrew then transitioned his efforts to lead the expansion of EPAM's Life Sciences footprint of areas that have been propelled into the spotlight due to the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic and its growing demands on the medical community.

Andrew's non-client work has also benefitted his peers and colleagues around him: Andrew is a Resource Manager to junior resources and provides personal and professional guidance to support their development, recognition, and promotion.

Queried about the best advice given to him, Andrew says this, "As I started my career in consulting, I had a natural thirst to try and gain as much professional acumen and subject matter expertise as I could. I worked in as many areas of my field as possible (i.e., research, clinical, regulatory, drug safety, etc.) and took on practically any role that was offered to me including in leading test teams, business analysis, and project management. While I feel like this resulted in a very positive experience and allowed for me to better understand a breadth of the industry and how consulting is applied early on, I was encouraged by a number of mentors along the way to begin considering how to focus on a true passion your career and beginning refining my expertise and skillsets to become a true commodity in the industry. I believe my ability to continue honing my knowledge and gaining select experience throughout my career has allowed me to provide value to our clients that couldn't have otherwise been obtained."

What would Andrew consider the factors of his success to date? He states, "Since beginning my professional and consulting career out of graduate school, I believe I have maintained a number of principles that I was fortunate enough to have bestowed on me earlier in life, in either what would have been considered non-career building jobs or through personal experiences. This includes treating every opportunity as a challenge to exceed your own expectations, learning from the times you fall short, and always considering who the customer is and how your actions will reflect on you and those you represent. Living with these principles have not always led to the desired outcome, but it has allowed me to stay humble and continue to find how I can bring the most value to my client and my organization."

"Growing up as a child in a military family, my early life was filled with the demand of moving around the country, adjusting to new settings, and anticipating the unexpected. Andrew continues,  "As I grew into adulthood, I not only felt like these traits helped me personally and professionally, I believe they also became something that I came to be drawn to. My 10+ years of working in the consulting industry has allowed me to experience a lifetime of roles and opportunities in a fraction of the time that would experience in a non-consulting style career. Being able to travel the world, work with new colleagues, experience and learn from the engagement of different clients, and collaborating to help solve their challenges has definitely helped to 'scratch my itch' when it comes to what I seek out in a career."

What is your proudest achievement to date?

"While there are business development opportunities that turned into large revenue-generating 'wins' for the companies that I have worked for, and there are several projects that have allowed our clients to reach certain desired outcomes as it pertains to efficiencies, ROI, etc. I would say that my proudest achievements would be tied to the few times throughout my career that I have been able to positively impact a colleague's career and personal life in a large way."

"Throughout my time as a consultant, I have had the chance to work on projects with offshore teammates based out of a number of other geographies: some with the desire to relocate and grow their career and family elsewhere. As I consider my proudest achievement, I recall helping graduate student, born and raised in Kenya, have the opportunity to relocate to Shanghai for an IT Consulting internship. I was responsible for ensuring that he arrived, felt settled, and became acclimated after leaving a country and continent he had never left before. Similarly, I was able to bring a long-time coworker on an H-1B visa from Bangalore, India to the US and helping him to establish the initial long-term residency paperwork as we work together on a project. Finally, my most recent accomplishment in this vein was working to ensure a well-deserved promotion of a resource in 2021 to become a peer as Senior Manager, and getting to notify him of the good news a week before his wedding."