Consulting Career Path
Consulting Professionals are hired in order to provide an honest third-party point of view of a problem and then strategize on how to improve the performance of the organization. Consultants specialize in specific industry verticals and typically work for Consulting Firms or institutions that offer consulting services (Example: EY Advisory & Deloitte). Consulting is a client-facing roll. At an internship level it may be questionable how much client exposure you will get, in the long term the consultant must ensure that work is being done to the client’s satisfaction or that it meets the client’s needs. Presenting information, consolidating opinions, and solving unique multilayered problems are all abilities any consultant must have. With these abilities also comes logical thinking, strong creative thinking, and long-term thinking.
Now that you know on a high level what is required of a consultant, let us think about what these firms are going to require of you to be a consultant. Any top tier firm in any industry is going to require a lot from their candidates, but obviously, there will always be variability, unique cases, and change over time in terms of what these firms will require. These are just standards and any deficiency in one quality is outweighed by hyperactive performance in another quality of equal weight.
What are consulting firms looking for in a new hire?
- High academic achievement: At least a GPA of 3.3 – 3.5.
- A 3.5 will make you competitive at top firms (Examples: Accenture, Deloitte, Bain & Company) depending on the specific type of consulting you will be performing.
- Strong analytical skills
- Sharp thinking abilities and the ability to think deeply are required for the job.
- Strong communication/interpersonal skills
- The ability to communicate with a clients & coworkers is extremely necessary and pivotal to the job.
- Market research experience/knowledge
- The ability to do research, the knowledge of how people think, and the ability to understand what the market wants are all skills that branch of off this quality.
- Leadership roles/experience
- Those who know how to take charge of something and own it, understand what it means to be accountable and therefore are responsible for results that they produce. The ability to articulate leadership roles in this manner make them powerful.
- Proof of collaborating on a team
- Understanding how to work actively with a team of new people is very critical to the job. Having a high Emotional Intelligence (EQ) will help with this quality and EQ is a skill that can be learned with practice over time.
- Strong passion for problem solving
- Solving problems is the whole job!
- You must have the thinking abilities and the communication skills to think through things with other people in order to solve problems.
The different types of consulting industry verticals are as follows:
- Strategy
- Executive level problem solving for the company.
- Operations
- Examining internal company operation processes for potential improvements.
- Information Technology
- Help clients leverage technology to improve their company.
- E-Consulting
- Focused on electronic businesses (Ecommerce/Ebusiness).
- Human Resources
- Maximizing employee placement and value.
- Boutique
- Highly specialized needs.
Consulting recruitment is done by impressing recruiters with cohesive genuine believable reasons that you specifically want to work with their firm and in their specific vertical and strong networking efforts with alumni, recent graduates, and company employees.