Consulting is an alluring career path for business students because Consultants travel across the country, solve problems, and meet numerous clients. If consulting is something you’re interested in, it’s important to realize what consultants really do, because it’s more than just solving problems.
The day-to-day work of a Consultant falls into three buckets. Understanding each of these will help you decide if this is the right career for you, and also prepare you to show up more competitively with firms.
- Objective Analysis: Data-driven decision making allows Consultants to provide unbiased recommendations to clients; gathering and analyzing data is the foundation for this part of the job.
- Project Management: Solving a problem is a process, and being able to manage the project needed to navigate to the solution is key for Consultants.
- Functional Expertise: Consulting firms are hired for their knowledge capital, so building and maintaining expertise in a given area allows Consultants to contribute to the firm’s knowledge base.
More information on each of these—along with the sort of problems each type of consulting can address as well as corresponding firms—can be found in the Consulting Industry Map. After reviewing the map, schedule an appointment with your Career Coach to debrief.
