How To Become An Advisor And Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is an advisor and consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

From the job title itself, an advisor and consultant is an individual that provides advice and expertise to organizations to help them improve various parts of their business. The work of an advisor and consultant encompasses a variety of areas, including management, business operations, IT, marketing, finance, supply chain management, and human resources.

To provide sound advice to clients, advisors and consultants conduct plenty of research to understand the business and its problems. They analyze statistics, conduct investigations within the organization, and compile all relevant information. After which, they devise recommendations for clients or help them come up with solutions.

An advisor and consultant often works closely with other people, which means that communication and collaboration are key skills that a candidate must have. They must also have adequate knowledge and experience in the area they are specializing in, and may even be required to have worked in that particular area. Other key skills include strategy, commercial awareness, analytics, and teamwork.

When looking for an advisor and consultant, most employers prefer graduates of a bachelor's degree. Any discipline is acceptable, but ideal majors are business, management, economics, and mathematics. However, it is possible for undergraduates to become an advisor and consultant, but they may need to have relevant experience.

The salary for an advisor and consultant varies greatly, but the average is $73,784 a year, depending on the industry.

ScoreAdvisor And ConsultantUS Average

Salary

6.3

Avg. Salary $80,661

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 12.20%

Black or African American 8.08%

Hispanic or Latino 8.91%

Unknown 4.50%

White 66.15%

Gender

female 28.60%

male 71.40%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.2

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an advisor and consultant

Explore advisor and consultant education requirements

Most common advisor and consultant degrees

Bachelor's

62.9 %

Master's

18.5 %

Associate

8.1 %

Start to develop specific advisor and consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Mutual Funds	12.25%
Fixed Income	11.63%
Client Relationships	10.50%
Business Plan	9.01%
Capital Markets	5.95%

Complete relevant advisor and consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New advisor and consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an advisor and consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real advisor and consultant resumes.

Research advisor and consultant duties and responsibilities

Manage CSR budget and agency and provide social media monitoring reporting and analysis to business on corporate reputation and brand issues.
Develop financial models to determine IRR, ROI, and obtain project financing.
Frame initial Facebook strategy and carrier operational requirements for SMS mobile messaging and advertising.
Analyze internal knowledge infrastructure and develop optimized information system/organization.

Prepare your advisor and consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your advisor and consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an advisor and consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable advisor and consultant resume templates

Build a professional advisor and consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your advisor and consultant resume.