A lead consultant supervises the work of a team of junior consultants at a consultancy firm. Just under the principal consultant in the company hierarchy, lead consultants oversee daily operations related to running projects. They keep regular contact with clients and make sure everything goes according to schedule, as efficiently as possible.
Lead consultants receive and review proposals from their team, make decisions regarding the projects, and act as a mediator between clients and the team, communicating the clients' needs and finding solutions to potential problems. Before making key decisions, however, lead consultants need the approval of a principal consultant.
The position of a lead consultant requires significant experience in consulting, more than five years usually. In order to be considered for the job, a degree or technical qualification will also be required in your field of expertise.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead consultant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $51.55 an hour? That's $107,230 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 9% and produce 56,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many lead 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 creativity, analytical skills and communication skills.
If you're interested in becoming a lead consultant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.6% of lead consultants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 23.3% of lead consultants have master's degrees. Even though most lead 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 lead consultant. When we researched the most common majors for a lead consultant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead consultant resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead consultant. In fact, many lead consultant jobs require experience in a role such as consultant. Meanwhile, many lead consultants also have previous career experience in roles such as senior consultant or senior software engineer.