Question 1

How long does it take to become a Consultant?

Accepted Answer

It takes 7 years of professional experience to become a consultant. That is the time it takes to learn specific consultant skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 10 to 12 years years to become a consultant.

Question 2

How do I get started as a consultant?

Accepted Answer

To get started as a consultant, you typically need a college education and experience.

A college education can help you get higher-paying jobs in specific fields. Experience especially will help you gain expertise and knowledge about the industry you want to specialize in.

Question 3

How do consultants make money?

Accepted Answer

Consultants make money by providing expert advice to help businesses improve their performance. Typically, they advise in areas such as operations, profitability, management, and even structure.

Question 4

How to become a consultant with no experience?

Accepted Answer

To become a consultant with no experience, you should get certified, earn a bachelor's degree, and network. Consultants are experts, so starting a career with no experience most likely means you may begin your career in an adjacent position to earn experience before switching, but there are other ways to prepare you for this position.

Question 5

What are the pros and cons of being a consultant?

Accepted Answer

The pros and cons of being a consultant are that while it can offer high salaries, diverse project work, and the potential for career advancement, it can also require long hours, frequent travel, and high stress levels. Consulting work is a profession that requires you to be a problem-solver, providing guidance to help companies operate better, and while it can be a great way to expand your skills, it's important to remember that as a consultant, you may also face challenging situations, such as demanding clients and tight deadlines, which can cause stress and anxiety.

Question 6

What education do you need to be a consultant?

Accepted Answer

The education needed to be a consultant is normally a bachelor's degree. Consultants usually study business, computer science, or accounting.

For the most part, there are no specific national requirements to be a consultant because it depends on what the client needs. A consultant is essentially an expert in their field, so most consultants get a bachelor's degree and some a master's degree.

Question 7

What is the career path for a consultant?

Accepted Answer

The career path for a consultant includes jobs as a business consultant, legal consultant, and financial consultant.

Consulting is an extremely diverse career path, as it can involve jobs in so many different industries, which all require their own educational background and specific skill sets.

In general, most consultants obtain at least a bachelor's degree in the specific field they want to consult in. Consultants also often gain certifications that are relevant to their field of work.

Here are some of the most common consulting career paths:

Business consultant

A consultant has expertise in a specific area of business or in a general sense. They offer expert advice to businesses, companies, and corporations in order to improve their business models and increase their profits.

Business consultants may also provide advice on how to structure a company or specific project. They are known to have strong communication skills, as this is essential in delivering their strategies to their clients.

Most business consultants have at least a bachelor's degree, while many have a master's degree. Degrees in business, economics, business administration, and finance are all relevant to a career in the field.

Most consultants do not start their careers in consulting but rather form or run successful companies or businesses before breaking into a career as a business consultant.

Legal consultant

A legal consultant is a professional who provides legal advice and strategies to individuals and organizations. While they can perform many of the same functions as a lawyer, legal consultants strictly provide services outside of the courtroom. They can work in many different areas of law, including financial law, foreign affairs, real estate, as well as many others.

To become a legal consultant, you must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam. Legal consultants often specialize in one area of the law, meaning you need to gain sufficient experience in a specific legal area to become a legal consultant.

Nearly all legal consultants are veteran lawyers that have had long careers in the field. Oftentimes they are semi-retired and consult on a part-time basis.

Financial consultant

A financial consultant is a professional that helps an individual or company build wealth. Their main objective is to help their clients with developing comprehensive long-term financial strategies to increase their wealth. They are heavily involved in the buying and selling of investments. And turning complicated financial concepts into actionable strategies.

A financial consultant may also advise a client or company on legal matters that relate to finance management and other financial issues. Financial consultants may operate broadly or in a more specific field.

Some examples of specialized financial consultants include pricing consultants, tax consultants, financial advisors, fundraising consultants, underwriting consultants, and valuation consultants.

To become a financial consultant, you must have an immense amount of knowledge in the areas of economics, financial concepts, business operations, and math. Nearly all have bachelor's degrees in a related area, and many hold master's degrees in finance, economics, business, mathematics, or other related areas.

Marketing consultant

Marketing consultants help companies develop a brand, connect with a target audience, and create effective business plans that result in more sales and public awareness of the company's products and/or services.

Marketing consultants may work in a broad capacity or specialize in a certain area of marketing. They may have extensive skills in creative areas, like copywriting or design, or may focus on technical realms, like data analytics and market research.

Examples of some sub-roles in the area of market consulting are advertising consultant, sales consultant, retail consultant, social media consultant, branding adviser, promotions consultant, SEO consultant, and digital marketing consultant.

Most marketing consultants hold a bachelor's degree in marketing, advertising, or another related field. Many also choose to get advanced degrees in these areas. It is necessary to build an impressive marketing portfolio prior to venturing into a career in consulting.

Question 8

What is the consultant title hierarchy?

Accepted Answer

The consultant titles hierarchy refers to the organizational structure of different consultant job titles at a company. The exact hierarchy can vary, depending on the company, but most have a relatively similar hierarchical structure. Here is the most common form of the consultant title hierarchy, starting with the bottom and ascending in authority:

Question 9

Advisor vs Consultant

Accepted Answer

An advisor is a professional who gives an individual or company recommendations on what should be done about certain issues, while a consultant is someone who provides expert advice to an individual or company.

Question 10

Analyst vs Consultant

Accepted Answer

An analyst is a professional that is tasked with gathering, interpreting, and using data to develop actionable strategies that improve and optimize results for a company, while a consultant is a professional who offers expert advice to individuals or corporations.

Question 11

Consultant vs Contractor

Accepted Answer

A consultant's role is to assess a client's needs and give strategic advice, while a contractor assesses a client's needs and performs the work that needs to be done.

A consultant is an expert in a particular field who provides professional advice to individuals, businesses, and corporations. They provide advice to help individuals or organizations with business performance in these areas, operations, profitability, structure, strategy, and management.

Question 12

Consultant vs Employee

Accepted Answer

A consultant is a professional that provides expert advice to a company or business, while an employee is a worker with a specific job within a company or business.

A consultant provides advice to help individuals or organizations with business performance in the areas of operations, profitability, structure, strategy, and management. They are often hired to solve specific problems within a company or business. While they come up with strategies and plans, consultants do not implement these themselves at a company.

Question 13

Consultant vs. Analyst

Accepted Answer

A consultant is an expert in their field and is able to offer advice in a variety of areas within that field, while an analyst specializes in only one area within a field.

A consultant is a professional who is specially trained in a particular area and advises individuals and organizations on matters related to the consultant's area of expertise. These professionals have often spent several years working in the area in which they practice and use the knowledge gained to help others succeed. They are typically focused in areas such as business, marketing, or sales.

Question 14

What is a good starting salary for a Consultant?

Accepted Answer

A good starting salary for a consultant is $67,000 in the United States. That puts you in the 10th percentile of annual income for a consultant in the U.S., which is about what you would expect if you were new to the field. The average salary for consultants is $89,807, but that normally requires some level of experience to achieve. Furthermore, a good starting salary for a consultant can vary by state.

Question 15

Do consultants make a lot of money?

Accepted Answer

Consultants can make a lot of money if they have a high education level and plenty of relevant experience in their field.

Those with a doctorate earn about $85,178 annually compared to consultants with only a bachelor's degree at $76,727. Those with a master's degree earn about $83,578 annually.

Question 16

How do consultants pay taxes?

Accepted Answer

Consultants pay taxes typically as self-employed professionals, this means they are responsible for paying both the employee and employer taxes concerning Medicare and Social Security. This is known as self-employment tax.

Question 17

Can a consultant make 100k?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can make $100,000 per year as a consultant. The chances of earning over $100k for a consultant are actually pretty good because the highest-paid consultant positions typically pay at least $120,000 per year. The average annual salary is $89,807 for consultant jobs. For example, consultants in District of Columbia whose salaries are in the 90th percentile earn an average salary of $132,000.

Question 18

How do I become a consultant?

Accepted Answer

To become a consultant, you must consider how much education you need and what kind of experience would be most useful for your field.

Normally, consultants have a bachelor's degree and even a master's degree, though it is possible to become a consultant with only a high school degree. What can help leverage the lack of a higher degree is experience. In fact, many consultants go through internships or have had roles such as project manager or manager.

Question 19

How to get a job as a consultant

Accepted Answer

You must develop key consulting skills, earn certifications, and make new connections by networking in order to get a job as a consultant.

There is an extremely vast number of different jobs in consulting. These can be in industries such as finance, legal, cybersecurity, entertainment, and many many more. If you want to get a job as a consultant, you must first develop and hone your skills in the industry you wish to consult in.

Question 20

What are the highest paying consulting jobs?

Accepted Answer

The highest paying consulting jobs are to do with professional, health care, and manufacturing companies.

Working for professional companies can earn you an average yearly salary of $95,990. In health care, it's around $82,229. In manufacturing, it's around $81,701.

Question 21

What makes a good consultant?

Accepted Answer

Several different things make a good consultant because it is a position that requires a mixture of expertise, skills, knowledge, and certain personal characteristics. These qualities are needed to advise clients and lead them toward positive outcomes. Here are some of the most important features of a good consultant:

Question 22

What qualifications do you need to be a consultant?

Accepted Answer

The qualification to be a sales consultant is a bachelor's degree in a business-related degree. Common bachelor's degrees for sales consultants to hold include:

Business Administration
Business Management
Marketing
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Communications

Question 23

Does a consultant need a business license?

Accepted Answer

Yes, consultants do need a business license to work legally in most states. When choosing your business structure, you can apply for a business license for your consulting business. The specifics for these licenses vary from state to state, as state governments handle business license requirements.

Question 24

What percentage of Consultants are female?

Accepted Answer

41.6% of consultants are female in the United States. This is 1.7 percentage points higher than last year. Additionally, the percentage of female consultants has increased by 1.8 percentage points since 2010. That means there are a total of 207,942 female consultants in the U.S. and 291,919 male consultants in the United States. Note that Zippia's estimate accounts only for the 499,861 people with the specific job title of consultant and doesn't include grouping similar job titles, or people with potentially similar credentialing.

Question 25

How do you write a consultant resume?

Accepted Answer

You write a consultant resume by highlighting your technical and analytical skills and interpersonal abilities such as communication and teamwork. The entire resume (from the profile summary to work experience to skills section) should show the hiring manager that you have the qualifications needed to excel in the position.

Question 26

How many hours do consultants work?

Accepted Answer

Consultants work over 40 hours a week. Most consultants work 40-50 hours weekly, but some work 60 hours. The variances in hours depend on firms and the clientele.

Consulting is not a 9-to-5 job. Often, consultants must travel for work, and this has them working odd hours, and often all hours of the day. As consultants move up in their careers, they may find more consistent schedules, but still work beyond the average 40-hour work week.

Question 27

How to answer the "why consulting" interview question

Accepted Answer

To prepare to answer the question "why consulting" in an interview, use this guide:

Understand it is not a throwaway question

Many who are asked this in an interview brush it off as just a standard question, one that the answer can be trite and canned. This is a mistake. Your interviewer wants to know your reasoning for consulting and how you excel at it.

Question 28

How to be a good consultant

Accepted Answer

To be a good consultant, you must develop and hone specific consulting skills, including creativity, problem-solving abilities, and conceptual thinking. Here are some of the top skills and qualities needed to be a good consultant:

Question 29

How to get a job in consulting

Accepted Answer

To get a job in consulting you must develop key consulting skills, earn certifications, and make new connections by networking. There is an extremely vast number of different jobs in consulting. These can be in industries, such as finance, legal, cybersecurity, entertainment, and many many more.

Question 30

What are career paths in consulting?

Accepted Answer

Business consulting, legal consulting, and environmental consulting are career paths in consulting. Here is a more detailed look at these career paths and others in consulting.

Business consultant
A consultant has expertise in a specific area of business or in a general sense. They offer expert advice to businesses, companies, and corporations to give advice and improve their business models and increase their profits.
Business consultants may also provide advice on how to more effectively structure a company or specific project. They have strong communication skills, which is essential in delivering their strategies to their clients.
Most business consultants have at least a bachelor's degree, while many have a master's degree. Degrees in business, economics, business administration, and finance are all relevant for a career in the field.
Most consultants do not start their careers in consulting but rather form or run successful companies or businesses before breaking into a career as a business consultant.
Legal consultant
A legal consultant is a professional who provides legal advice and strategies to individuals and organizations. While they can perform many of the same functions as lawyers, legal consultants strictly provide services outside the courtroom. They can work in many different areas of law, such as, financial law, foreign affairs, real estate and many others.
To become a legal consultant you must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam. Legal consultants often specialize in one area of the law, meaning if you need to gain sufficient experience in a specific legal area to become a legal consultant.
Nearly all legal consultants are veteran lawyers that have had long careers in the field. Oftentimes they are semi-retired and consult on a part-time basis.
Environmental Consultant
An environmental consultant utilizes their expertise to assist companies in determining and managing their environmental impact. They may work on specific company projects where the environment may be affected and work in a more generalized capacity overseeing a company's total practices and their effects on the environment.
They also often help craft environmentally friendly policies and ensure that a company is following regulations associated with the environment.
Within this career path, there are many different job titles, including renewable energy consultant, emissions consultant, sustainability consultant, environmental impact consultant, waste management consultant, air quality consultant, and several others.
Environmental consultants have science-orientated backgrounds, nearly all have a bachelor's degree, and most have advanced degrees in environmental science, environmental engineering, environmental studies, biology, renewable energy, chemistry, or another related field.
Financial Consultant
A financial consultant is a professional that helps an individual or company build wealth. Their main objective is to help their clients with developing comprehensive long-term financial strategies to increase their wealth. They are heavily involved in the buying and selling of investments. And turning complicated financial concepts into actionable strategies.
A financial consultant may also advise a client or company on legal matters that relate to finance management and other financial issues.
Financial consultants may operate broadly or in a more specific field. Some examples of specialized financial consultants include pricing consultant, tax consultant, financial advisor, fundraising consultant, underwriting consultant, and valuation consultant.
To become a financial consultant you must have an immense amount of knowledge in the areas of economics, financial concepts, business operations, and math. Nearly all have bachelor's degrees in a related area, and many hold master's degrees in either finance, economics, business, mathematics, or other related areas.
Marketing consultant
Marketing consultants help companies develop a brand, connect with a target audience, and create effective business plans that result in more sales and public awareness of the company's products and/or services.
Marketing consultants may work in a broad capacity or specialize in a certain area of marketing. They may have extensive skills in creative areas, like copywriting or design, or may focus on technical realms, like data analytics and market research.
Examples of some sub-roles in the area of market consulting are advertising consultant, sales consultant, retail consultant, social media consultant, branding adviser, promotions consultant, SEO consultant, and digital marketing consultant.
Most marketing consultants hold a bachelor's degree in marketing, advertising, or another related field. Many also choose to get advanced degrees in these areas.
Nearly all marketing consultants start off in full-time marketing positions before they go into consulting. It is necessary to build an impressive marketing portfolio prior to venturing into a career in consulting.

Question 31

What does an entry-level consultant do?

Accepted Answer

An entry-level consultant conducts research and analysis to support project work, assists with the development and organizing of presentations and reports, and collects and manages key project data. The exact duties of an entry-level consultant may vary depending on the company they are employed by.

Question 32

What is the consulting hierarchy?

Accepted Answer

The typical consulting hierarchy is intern, junior consultant, senior consultant, project manager, and partner.

In the traditional consulting track, you will always have to start with an entry-level position. In most cases, the best way to get your foot in the door is through an internship position. Most consulting interns will offer support to higher-level consultants by collecting data or running analyses.

It is important to note that not all firms have an internship program, so if this is the path that you would like to pursue, it is a good idea to start your research early on in and find firms that have internship opportunities available. It is also important to remember that with limited spots available, there will probably be lots of competition.

After an internship position (or your entry-level position if you did not do an internship) is at the junior consultant or analyst level. These roles typically handle small workflows or support senior consultants in larger and more important workflows. This role will help you to learn more about the day-to-day tasks associated with consulting.

The next level is a senior consultant or associate. These levels are reserved for MBA students and those with experience in the industry. Candidates at these levels are expected to know how to lead large and important projects and how to guide lower-level analysts in their day-to-day tasks.

After a senior consultant role, the next level would be either a project manager or project leader. These roles are involved managing all aspects of a consulting firm's projects. They work with clients to determine what their needs are and convey those needs to the consultants that are providing those services.

It is the role of the project manager or leader to ensure that everything goes smoothly on a workflow or project from start to finish. These roles may be permanent or temporary based on the needs and size of the consulting firm, but they are extremely useful when it comes to supporting growth and success.

The last level in the consulting hierarchy is the partner/director level. Persons in these roles are responsible for selling consulting projects to clients. They often act as the owners of individual projects. Similar professional titles can include engagement director or engagement manager.

Frequently asked questions about consultants

Questions about becoming a consultant