Contractor/consultant vs project consultant

The differences between contractor/consultants and project consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project consultant has an average salary of $86,654, which is higher than the $84,811 average annual salary of a contractor/consultant.

The top three skills for a contractor/consultant include healthcare, post implementation and data analysis. The most important skills for a project consultant are customer service, project management, and client facing.

Contractor/consultant vs project consultant overview

	Contractor/Consultant	Project Consultant
Yearly salary	$84,811	$86,654
Hourly rate	$40.77	$41.66
Growth rate	11%	11%
Number of jobs	64,573	113,013
Job satisfaction	5	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	44	44
Years of experience	-	4

What does a contractor/consultant do?

A contractor is a self-employed businessperson who agrees to work for a fixed price. His/her job involves the evaluation of clients' needs and actual performance of work. On the other hand, a consultant is a skilled independent businessperson who provides expert teaching and training in a specific market by assisting existing staff for the improvement of operations, problem-solving, and development of strategies. His/her role is to assess clients' needs and provide expert advice and opinion. However, both individuals are not employees, since they came from outside of the organization to perform such services.

What does a project consultant do?

A project consultant is responsible for communicating with the clients for their specific needs, develop strategic plans, and determine project resources to achieve their business goals and objectives. Project consultants are employed across various industries, offering their knowledge and expertise to facilitate clients' requests and propositions. They also collaborate with different development teams to discuss project parameters and analyze opportunities to improve plans and progress efficiency. A project consultant must have excellent communication and critical-thinking skills, responding to clients' inquiries and concerns, and providing recommendations to ensure successful project completion.

Contractor/consultant vs project consultant salary

Contractor/consultants and project consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Contractor/Consultant	Project Consultant
Average salary	$84,811	$86,654
Salary range	Between $58,000 And $123,000	Between $59,000 And $126,000
Highest paying City	Boston, MA	Newark, NJ
Highest paying state	New Jersey	New Jersey
Best paying company	Cerner	Dell
Best paying industry	Technology	-

Differences between contractor/consultant and project consultant education

There are a few differences between a contractor/consultant and a project consultant in terms of educational background:

	Contractor/Consultant	Project Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	Northwestern University

Contractor/consultant vs project consultant demographics

Here are the differences between contractor/consultants' and project consultants' demographics:

	Contractor/Consultant	Project Consultant
Average age	44	44
Gender ratio	Male, 66.2% Female, 33.8%	Male, 61.9% Female, 38.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 9.4% Asian, 8.8% White, 70.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 7.4% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 14.4% White, 65.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	11%	12%

Differences between contractor/consultant and project consultant duties and responsibilities

Contractor/consultant example responsibilities.

Manage design and development of cloud-base billing application for streamlining payroll and invoicing, as well as offering real-time business analytics.
Assist PMO in defining project scope, task and budget, collaborating closely with developers.
Bill and provide appropriate documentation to submit reimbursement for services to appropriate insurance to include Medicaid, Medicare, etc.
Motivate and ensure SME team member engagement in projects.
Provide Linux server setup, documentation, and internal support.
Develop and implement SQL store procedures and DTS packages to process client billing data.

Project consultant example responsibilities.

Lead a pilot project to introduce strong document management features to support document repositories in SharePoint.
Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
Create SQL scripts to implement test unit cases and ensure data quality.
Gather all systems, applications and processes documentation into one repository on SharePoint to enable incoming vendor education.
Implement strategic initiatives for operational transformation, including SDLC processes, role specialization, order tracking and labor tracking.
Develop amendment projection and confirmations user interfaces using JavaScript and XML and develop PL/SQL procedures and packages to handle business logic.

Contractor/consultant vs project consultant skills

Common contractor/consultant skills

Healthcare, 30%
Post Implementation, 25%
Data Analysis, 7%
Project Management, 5%
Financial Statements, 3%
Medicaid, 3%

Common project consultant skills

Customer Service, 16%
Project Management, 12%
Client Facing, 6%
Project Scope, 5%
Process Improvement, 5%
Healthcare, 4%

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Contractor/Consultant
Contractor/Consultant vs Project Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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