How long does it take to become a principal consultant?

It takes about nine years to become a principal consultant. The first step is obtaining a bachelor's degree in an industry-related field, and this will take four years. Typical degrees for principal consulting are business management, finance, or computer technology.

What is the difference between a principal consultant and a senior consultant?

The difference between a principal consultant and a senior consultant is in the scope of responsibility and oversight. A senior consultant manages analysts and junior consultants, while a principal consultant oversees large teams delivering an entire project.

How To Become A Principal Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a principal consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Robin Cormier

A principal consultant is a senior member of a consulting firm's staff who offers expertise, resources, and guidance to help clients succeed in their businesses. Their responsibilities may include identifying and contacting potential clients, building strong relationships with existing clients for repeat business, maintaining frequent client communication, making regular client visits, and ensuring client satisfaction.

Their additional responsibilities may include conducting meetings with clients and management to determine projects' scopes, budgets, and timelines, developing business proposals and regulating project terms and conditions with clients, identifying potential clients through networking, referrals and communities, and tracking project progress and identifying and correcting any delays.

Principal consultants need to have experience working in consulting at a senior level, the ability to build relationships with clients, and excellent interpersonal, communication, and teamwork skills. They should also have the ability to manage projects and teams.

Principal consultants need to have a bachelor's or master's degree in their field. They typically earn $57.72 an hour, which translates to $119,634 annually.

What general advice would you give to a principal consultant?

Robin Cormier

Assistant Professor, Montana State University - Billings

While college graduates begin to launch their careers, they also face uncertainty about job opportunities. This can be a daunting time in their life. First and foremost, they should be proud of their achievements. There are many steps they can take to prepare for a future career, such as developing a network and building a strong resume. However, in my opinion, the most important advice I would offer new graduates is to pursue their passion. When you are passionate about your career, your life is more fulfilling, and you are more determined to achieve success. Passion shows through how you communicate, develop working relationships, and your level of career investment.

ScorePrincipal ConsultantUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $116,478

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.43%

Asian 8.83%

Black or African American 6.36%

Hispanic or Latino 9.39%

Unknown 4.56%

White 70.43%

Gender

female 24.20%

male 75.80%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

2.2

Work life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a principal consultant

Explore principal consultant education requirements

Most common principal consultant degrees

Bachelor's

67.7 %

Master's

23.3 %

Associate

4.5 %

Start to develop specific principal consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Cloud	11.35%
Business Development	10.40%
C #	7.00%
Customer Satisfaction	6.06%
Java	4.94%

Research principal consultant duties and responsibilities

Manage project risks and issues throughout the SDLC phases, report project/program statuses to steering committee along with financial information.
Provide PMO office support including improving governance processes to achieve expect results.
Manage numerous engagements that are either custom development or package software (ERP) implementations and integration.
Project leadership, strategy and health information management consulting services to healthcare and manage care organizations and health information technology companies.

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