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Project consultant vs project manager

The differences between project consultants and project managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a project manager has an average salary of $91,578, which is higher than the $86,654 average annual salary of a project consultant.

The top three skills for a project consultant include customer service, project management and client facing. The most important skills for a project manager are project management, project scope, and customer service.

Project consultant vs project manager overview

Project ConsultantProject Manager
Yearly salary$86,654$91,578
Hourly rate$41.66$44.03
Growth rate11%8%
Number of jobs113,013167,116
Job satisfaction-4.17
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age4447
Years of experience4-

What does a project consultant do?

A project consultant is responsible for communicating with the clients for their specific needs, develop strategic plans, and determine project resources to achieve their business goals and objectives. Project consultants are employed across various industries, offering their knowledge and expertise to facilitate clients' requests and propositions. They also collaborate with different development teams to discuss project parameters and analyze opportunities to improve plans and progress efficiency. A project consultant must have excellent communication and critical-thinking skills, responding to clients' inquiries and concerns, and providing recommendations to ensure successful project completion.

What does a project manager do?

Project managers oversee a specific project related to the organization's business. They manage the whole project from inception to evaluation. They initiate planning with involved departments, follow-through on the plans, ensure smooth execution of the plans, and evaluate the project for further improvements should these be needed. In line with this, project managers also ensure that the project is cost-efficient and well within the budget. They also manage the different work teams involved in the project and ensure that things are running smoothly on this aspect as well.

Project consultant vs project manager salary

Project consultants and project managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Project ConsultantProject Manager
Average salary$86,654$91,578
Salary rangeBetween $59,000 And $126,000Between $64,000 And $129,000
Highest paying CityNewark, NJSan Francisco, CA
Highest paying stateNew JerseyCalifornia
Best paying companyDellThe Citadel
Best paying industry-Technology

Differences between project consultant and project manager education

There are a few differences between a project consultant and a project manager in terms of educational background:

Project ConsultantProject Manager
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 67%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBusinessBusiness
Most common collegeNorthwestern UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania

Project consultant vs project manager demographics

Here are the differences between project consultants' and project managers' demographics:

Project ConsultantProject Manager
Average age4447
Gender ratioMale, 61.9% Female, 38.1%Male, 68.9% Female, 31.1%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.4% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 8.5% Asian, 14.4% White, 65.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 7.7% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 12.9% Asian, 9.0% White, 65.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage12%10%

Differences between project consultant and project manager duties and responsibilities

Project consultant example 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.
  • Implement strategic initiatives for operational transformation, including SDLC processes, role specialization, order tracking and labor tracking.
  • Develop amendment projection and confirmations user interfaces using JavaScript and XML and develop PL/SQL procedures and packages to handle business logic.
  • Show more

Project manager example responsibilities.

  • Schedule and manage the GCP audit process.
  • Define, develop and manage metrics and KPIs systems for new product business group.
  • Manage the application process for the FDA medical device, minority and small business certifications.
  • Manage multiple projects and resources simultaneously while mentoring, coaching and implementing best practices, SOX and HIPAA compliance standards.
  • Lead teams using the Informatica ETL tool for the design and development of multiple financial and risk enterprise data warehouses.
  • Administer and manage Salesforce requirements.
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Project consultant vs project manager skills

Common project consultant skills
  • Customer Service, 16%
  • Project Management, 12%
  • Client Facing, 6%
  • Project Scope, 5%
  • Process Improvement, 5%
  • Healthcare, 4%
Common project manager skills
  • Project Management, 23%
  • Project Scope, 6%
  • Customer Service, 6%
  • Infrastructure, 5%
  • Status Reports, 4%
  • Risk Management, 3%

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