How to hire a consulting assistant

How to hire a consulting assistant, step by step

Here's a step-by-step consulting assistant hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a consulting assistant job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new consulting assistant
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The consulting assistant hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a consulting assistant to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a consulting assistant that fits the bill.

   The following list breaks down different types of consulting assistants and their corresponding salaries.

   Type of Consulting Assistant	Description	Hourly rate
   Consulting Assistant		$15-42
   Business Internship	In a business internship, the responsibilities will vary by the directives given by the supervising staff. However, one of the primary duties as an intern is to perform support-related tasks for the department or office where they are assigned... Show more	$12-21
   Business Development Internship	A business development intern is responsible for supporting the organization's goals and objectives in providing the best services to clients and ensuring a smooth flow of operations with maximum productivity and efficiency. Business development interns observe the operational processes of the department and perform duties under the supervision of a direct manager or tenured staff... Show more	$12-20

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Mental Health
   • Substance Abuse
   • Financial Statements
   • HR
   • EAP
   • Crisis Intervention
   • PowerPoint
   • Product Knowledge
   • Administrative Tasks
   • Market Research
   • SQL
   • Real Estate
   • Database Management
   • Scheduling Appointments

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage client and prospect database for marketing purposes through Salesforce.com.
   • Enter daily traffic into Yardi tracking database.
   • Calculate and process payroll payouts for LOA employees.
   • Establish social media presence on Facebook for the consultant.
   • Provide clients with QuickBooks advice and general bookkeeping guidance.
   • Reconcile monthly payroll and process available PTO hours and accruals.

   More consulting assistant duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your consulting assistant job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A consulting assistant salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a consulting assistant in Arizona may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level consulting assistant usually earns less than a senior-level consulting assistant. Additionally, a consulting assistant with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average consulting assistant salary

   $53,353yearly

   $25.65 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level consulting assistant salary

   $32,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 17, 2025

   Average consulting assistant salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Massachusetts	$80,311	$39
   2	District of Columbia	$76,870	$37
   3	California	$73,149	$35
   4	Michigan	$58,821	$28
   5	Washington	$57,121	$27
   6	Colorado	$50,760	$24
   7	Texas	$50,462	$24
   8	Tennessee	$44,738	$22
   9	Florida	$42,780	$21

   Average consulting assistant salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$119,605	$57.50
   2	State Street	$106,768	$51.33
   3	California Institute of Technology	$72,869	$35.03	1
   4	Cigna	$66,991	$32.21
   5	Express Healthcare Professionals	$63,475	$30.52
   6	International Society of Arboriculture	$62,730	$30.16
   7	JLL	$60,723	$29.19	2
   8	The Marsh	$60,620	$29.14
   9	Americorps	$58,216	$27.99
   10	Randstad North America, Inc.	$57,425	$27.61	1
   11	Guidehouse	$56,299	$27.07	99
   12	My Florida Regional Mls	$48,800	$23.46
   13	DFCU Financial	$47,924	$23.04	1
   14	Florida Department of Transportation	$35,505	$17.07
   15	Express Employment Indy South	$35,148	$16.90
   16	State Of Florida	$34,450	$16.56
   17	Camden	$29,818	$14.34	2

4. Writing a consulting assistant job description

   A job description for a consulting assistant role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a consulting assistant job description:

   Consulting assistant job description example

   Assumes major responsibility for the daily operations of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) in a particular facility or geographic grouping of facilities, providing service to physicians, employees, and family members. Coordinates the development, delivery, allocation and maintenance of services in regards to assessment and short-term problem solving and referral, committee and workgroup participation, training, organizational initiative support, organizational change support, threat management, critical incident response, and consultation to managers, supervisors, human resource representatives and union representatives.
   Essential Responsibilities:
   
   + Under limited clinical direction and consultative support from management, performs the following: 1) Behavioral health assessment and referral; 2) Short-term problem solving; 3) Consultation and training to managers, supervisors, human resource representatives and union representatives; 4) At the managers discretion, will provide clinical lead support to less experienced staff, providing consultative oversight (e.g., behavioral health assessment, organizational risk management issues and concerns, etc.); 5) Crisis intervention and critical incident stress management in response to employee deaths, adverse outcomes in the healthcare setting and any other event that has the potential to traumatize KP employee(s) and/or diminish their ability to do their job; 6) Serves as a core member on their local Threat Management Team (TMT); 7) Management of projects based on departmental and organizational needs; and 8) Responsibility for daily operations of Kaiser Permanentes internal EAP at the local facility.
   
   + Provide behavioral health consultation to help solve higher-risk and complex/diverse issues. Provide consultation to key stakeholders re: group and organizational intakes. Allows employee/mgr. to effectively address personal and/or work related problems impacting work performance. Helps mitigate organizational liability by helping manage behavioral risk issues. Serves as behavioral health resource to employees and their families, reducing caseload volume of KPs mental health depts.
   
   + Manages client and customer scheduling, requiring complex planning to coordinate with other departments or resources. Interprets less defined guidelines to make recommendations for process improvements and/or enhancements. Works on assignments of diverse and complex scope.
   
   + Uses practice management strategies to optimize time and balance workload. Makes appropriate decisions regarding prioritizing the needs of the business, organizational workflow and managing organizational trends and demands. Exercises considerable judgment to make decisions for less defined and complex issues. Involves interpreting and analyzing established concepts and trends. May require complex decision-making.
   
   + Assesses all new cases and requests for services; determines course of action or seeks consultative support for highly complex and diverse cases/issues. Serves as a resource and/or mentor for less experienced coordinators. Provides project support at the discretion of the mgr or director. Collects and analyzes data to make informed recommendations/decisions which affect the department. Requires in-depth analysis to identify and recommend new solutions for more complex problems. Develops solutions to a diverse range of complex problems, which require creativity and innovation within broadly defined policies and practices.
   
   + Asks direct questions, listening actively and carefully to responses, restating to clarify understanding. Tailors and adapts communication style and content to the client. Communicates observations and sensitive issues in a manner and time-frame that is useful and appropriate. Influences others to adopt new concepts and methodologies. Engages in matters requiring coordination across functional lines. Provides professional/technical guidance to team members.
   
   + Seeks professional consultation and uses Director, Managers and colleagues as internal consultants. Exercises considerable latitude in determining objectives and approaches to assignment. Work is accomplished without considerable direction, and is evaluated upon completion to ensure objectives and performance requirements have been met.
   
   + Provides on-going coaching, enabling team members to develop and improve skills and capabilities that support the effectiveness of the department and/or function. Serves as a technical/professional mentor to team members. Provides project leadership on departmental work, although has no formal supervisory or management responsibilities.
   
   Basic Qualifications:
   
   Experience
   
   + Minimum five (5) years as a licensed clinician, with a minimum of two (2) years of clinical experience, to include chemical dependency work, crisis intervention, traumatic stress intervention and short-term problem solving required.
   
   Education
   
   + Masters degree in social work, psychology, or related clinical human services discipline required.
   
   License, Certification, Registration
   
   + Licensed Clinical Psychologist (in location where applicable) OR Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (in location where applicable) OR Licensed Clinical Social Worker (in location where applicable)
   
   Additional Requirements:
   
   + Program experience must include training design and implementation, organization consultation.
   
   + Familiarity with management information systems and human resource functions.
   
   + Thorough knowledge of policies, practices and systems.
   
   + Regularly contributes to the development of new concepts, techniques, and standards.
   
   + Considered functional expert in field within KP.
   
   + Frequently contributes to the development of new theories and methods.
   
   + Employs expertise as a generalist or specialist.
   
   + Working knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Word, & Power Point.
   
   + Must be able to work in a Labor/Management Partnership environment.
   
   Preferred Qualifications:
   
   + Experience providing management consultations preferred.
   
   + Experience providing training preferred.
   
   + Healthcare service background preferred.
   
   + Program development and project management experience preferred.
   
   + CEAP or CEAP eligible preferred.
   
   + Ph.D in social work, psychology, or related clinical human services discipline preferred.
   
   Notes:
   
   + Position shares coverage for the Oakland Med Ctr, PO, & NCAL Reg Offices.
   
   COMPANY: KAISER
   
   TITLE: Employee Assistance Program Consultant III - Oakland
   
   LOCATION: Oakland, California
   
   REQNUMBER: 1113348
   
   External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, state and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran, or disability status.

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5. Post your job

   To find consulting assistants for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any consulting assistants they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level consulting assistants with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your consulting assistant job on Zippia to find and recruit consulting assistant candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with consulting assistant candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new consulting assistant

   Once you've decided on a perfect consulting assistant candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new consulting assistant. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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