A Data Consultant, also known as a System Consultant, is a data expert who performs their job in various industries and markets. They analyze and examine the many operating and data processes and the general data management within the company. The results, paired with their insight, should allow the clients to see where and how they could increase productivity within the organization.
They are also often used to build and maintain databases, data flows, and spreadsheets. They will often need to work with various departments and people within their workplace, including client partners and the engineering team.
Typically, a potential candidate for this position will need to have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT management, or a related field of study. They will also generally need to have good written and verbal communication skills, strong data analysis, and reporting skills.
Data Consultant Overview
Working as a Data Consultant
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a data consultant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.35 an hour? That's $88,088 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 14% and produce 118,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Data Consultant Do
There are certain skills that many data consultants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed time-management skills, interpersonal skills and leadership skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a data consultant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.2% of data consultants included analytics, while 9.3% of resumes included procedures, and 6.7% of resumes included data quality. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the data consultant job title. But what industry to start with? Most data consultants actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Data Consultant
If you're interested in becoming a data consultant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 39.6% of data consultants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 33.5% of data consultants have master's degrees. Even though most data consultants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a data consultant. When we researched the most common majors for a data consultant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on data consultant resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a data consultant. In fact, many data consultant jobs require experience in a role such as consultant. Meanwhile, many data consultants also have previous career experience in roles such as data analyst or senior software engineer.
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Data Consultant Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of senior software engineer you might progress to a role such as team leader eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title contract project manager.
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Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Data Consultant
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Data Science Consultant SME Data Science Consultant SME | Randstad Randstad | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $135,65501/28/2021 $135,655 |
Florida Department of Transportation Data Base Consultant Data Base Consultant | Florida Department of Transportation Florida Department of Transportation | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $46,38101/27/2021 $46,381 |
State of Florida Data Base Consultant Data Base Consultant | State of Florida State of Florida | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $46,38101/27/2021 $46,381 |
Randstad SR Data Visualization Consultant SR Data Visualization Consultant | Randstad Randstad | 01/21/2021 01/21/2021 | $137,74201/21/2021 $137,742 |
Washington State L&I Data Consultant 2 L&I Data Consultant 2 | Washington State Washington State | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $43,39201/15/2021 $43,392 |
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Data Consultant Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Data Consultant. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Data Consultant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Data Consultant resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Data Consultants
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. New York University
New York, NY • Private
4. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
5. George Washington University, The
Washington, DC • Private
6. Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA • Public
7. University of Rochester
Rochester, NY • Private
8. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
9. University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL • Private
10. SUNY at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY • Public
Top Skills For a Data Consultant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.2% of data consultants listed analytics on their resume, but soft skills such as time-management skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
- Analytics, 13.2%
- Procedures, 9.3%
- Data Quality, 6.7%
- Data Management, 6.4%
- Data Governance, 4.5%
- Other Skills, 59.9% See All Data Consultant Skills
Best States For a Data Consultant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a data consultant. The best states for people in this position are Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, and California. Data consultants make the most in Maryland with an average salary of $109,382. Whereas in New Jersey and Washington, they would average $104,768 and $104,740, respectively. While data consultants would only make an average of $104,374 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$104,741
Avg. Salary
2. Texas
$102,763
Avg. Salary
3. New Jersey
$104,768
Avg. Salary
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