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Professional services consultant vs technical consultant

The differences between professional services consultants and technical consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a professional services consultant and a technical consultant. Additionally, a professional services consultant has an average salary of $110,145, which is higher than the $89,290 average annual salary of a technical consultant.

The top three skills for a professional services consultant include professional services, architecture and cloud. The most important skills for a technical consultant are java, database, and customer service.

Professional services consultant vs technical consultant overview

Professional Services ConsultantTechnical Consultant
Yearly salary$110,145$89,290
Hourly rate$52.95$42.93
Growth rate9%9%
Number of jobs156,160173,374
Job satisfaction5-
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 73%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Average age4343
Years of experience66

What does a professional services consultant do?

A professional services consultant supports their employer achieved short-term and long-term business needs. They provide beneficial information and analysis for upper management to use in decision making. Generally, professional services consultants may offer help in a variety of areas depending on their area of expertise. For example, a consultant with business strategy expertise may help to implement new techniques for greater cost-saving efficiency. Other professional services consultants may also assist other related businesses, such as financial planning and legal issues. Moreover, this position is mostly full time and in an office setting.

What does a technical consultant do?

A technical consultant is an individual who provides technical support and performs troubleshooting functions for the company's product or application. A consultant should be highly knowledgeable about the product or application so that he/she can assist users and clients with whatever issues they may be facing. A bachelor's degree is required to work as a technical consultant, particularly a degree in Computer Science or Engineering. Also, a consultant should conduct training sessions and therefore, must possess excellent communication skills.

Professional services consultant vs technical consultant salary

Professional services consultants and technical consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Professional Services ConsultantTechnical Consultant
Average salary$110,145$89,290
Salary rangeBetween $81,000 And $148,000Between $67,000 And $118,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CASeattle, WA
Highest paying stateCaliforniaWashington
Best paying companyApplePillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Best paying industryTechnologyProfessional

Differences between professional services consultant and technical consultant education

There are a few differences between a professional services consultant and a technical consultant in terms of educational background:

Professional Services ConsultantTechnical Consultant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 73%Bachelor's Degree, 66%
Most common majorBusinessComputer Science
Most common collegeStanford UniversityStanford University

Professional services consultant vs technical consultant demographics

Here are the differences between professional services consultants' and technical consultants' demographics:

Professional Services ConsultantTechnical Consultant
Average age4343
Gender ratioMale, 69.3% Female, 30.7%Male, 79.1% Female, 20.9%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 10.1% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 10.9% Asian, 14.6% White, 59.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 10.2% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 11.2% Asian, 15.3% White, 58.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between professional services consultant and technical consultant duties and responsibilities

Professional services consultant example responsibilities.

  • Manage the SDLC for a re-write of all systems for a national automobile auction house.
  • Design and manage development of SLA measurement platform to be used by service providers for performance measurements.
  • Generate maps, manage and update GIS data, perform geographic analyses, develop and update databases for clients.
  • Develop and manage database connectivity for AbInitio ETL tool.
  • Manage design and development of cloud-base billing application for streamlining payroll and invoicing, as well as offering real-time business analytics.
  • Implement several SAN and disaster recovery solutions for applications for Unix, Windows/Exchange/SQL and VMware.
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Technical consultant example responsibilities.

  • Develop several Unix scripts to automate routine operating system and application maintenance tasks.
  • Lead design, development and implementation of business intelligence and ETL solutions for client organizations.
  • Collaborate with developers, technical leads and management to develop technical standards for PL/SQL coding and documentation.
  • Create and manage several SharePoint team sites to host, communicate and collaborate about project information and documentation.
  • Provide emergency support to internal/external customers requiring the ability to effectively manage multiple tasks and rapidly troubleshoot complex applications.
  • Extract, clean and validate from XML file into database using SSIS task (XML source).
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Professional services consultant vs technical consultant skills

Common professional services consultant skills
  • Professional Services, 14%
  • Architecture, 6%
  • Cloud, 6%
  • Java, 6%
  • Customer Service, 5%
  • Unix, 4%
Common technical consultant skills
  • Java, 9%
  • Database, 5%
  • Customer Service, 5%
  • Project Management, 5%
  • C #, 4%
  • Technical Support, 4%

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