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

What is a project consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Robin Cormier

Project consultants contribute their technical, strategic, or operational expertise to projects to ensure success. They use consultations and investigations to identify the scope of projects. After which, they perform a SWOT analysis of existing project plans and recommend improvements. They identify and review project parameters and specifications. Furthermore, they perform cost calculations and draft budgets with financial departments. Likewise, they distribute personnel and resources to project tasks. Also, they work with different departments to set realistic project targets and timeframes. Additionally, they guide and monitor the progress of the project.

Employers seek applicants with a bachelor's degree in business administration, project management, or a related field. Applicants must have at least five years of experience in a similar role. You need communication, analytical, leadership, collaboration, time management, and organization skills to succeed in this role. You must be proficient in project management software. Project consultants make about $73,393 per annum. It varies between $44,000 and $121,000.

What general advice would you give to a project 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.

ScoreProject ConsultantUS Average

Salary

6.8

Avg. Salary $86,654

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.8

Growth rate 11%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.16%

Asian 14.35%

Black or African American 7.45%

Hispanic or Latino 8.46%

Unknown 4.44%

White 65.13%

Gender

female 38.14%

male 61.86%

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 project consultant

Explore project consultant education requirements

Most common project consultant degrees

Bachelor's

67.4 %

Master's

20.5 %

Associate

6.8 %

Start to develop specific project consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Service	16.25%
Project Management	12.41%
Client Facing	5.90%
Project Scope	4.95%
Process Improvement	4.56%

Complete relevant project consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New project consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a project consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real project consultant resumes.

Research project consultant duties and 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.

Prepare your project consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your project consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a project consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable project consultant resume templates

Build a professional project consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your project consultant resume.