Consulting is an exciting career opportunity that offers graduates the chance to use their critical thinking skills, creativity, and past knowledge. It is demanding, but immensely rewarding.
When looking at consulting as a potential career, it is worth exploring the specific types of consulting available. While working as a consultant means that you will be hired to help a company improve its current situation and solve challenging problems, there are specializations that could appeal to you. For example, well-known firms like Bain often have branches that specifically deal with tech, restructuring, and human capital. If you’re interested in consulting, it could be beneficial to look into the different types of consulting careers that are possible.
In this article, we will explore three types of consulting work that exists.
IT / Tech Consultants
With the rapidly-changing society that we live in today, it is no surprise that many companies need technical advice. If you have a passion for tech, then this could be the perfect opportunity for you!
Tech consultants develop and implement technology-based strategies to achieve their clients’ objectives. In order to work as this type of consultant, having prior background knowledge of tech or computer science would be preferred. Companies such as IBM Global Technology Services, for example, help their clients shift to the cloud and incorporate cutting edge technologies into their business model. If you are interested in working for a company that has strong IT/Tech consulting, you can’t go wrong with any of the well-known consulting firms (such as McKinsey or Bain) or with any of the big accounting firms (such as EY or KPMG). However, it could be worth checking out other companies such as BearingPoint or Analysys Mason.
Human Capital / Human Resource Consultants
HR and human capital consultants analyze the internal workings of their clients’ companies and recommend solutions to improve their HR policies or increase the productivity and engagement of their clients’ employees. If you are interested in observing the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and how group dynamics factor into success, then working as a human capital or Human Resource (HR) consultant could be the job for you. For this position, it is helpful to know about organizational psychology or human resources management. If you are interested in a position like this, the well-known consulting and accounting firms have great programs for this. Additionally, you should also look into companies like Korn Ferrey. Korn Ferrey is a company that solely focuses on advising on the organizational structures of a company. They help their clients effectively hire individuals, set reward and motivation systems, and create an organizational structure.
Marketing Consultants
Another prominent type of consulting is that of marketing. Marketing consultants analyze their clients’ current marketing strategies and develop recommendations on how to improve them. They can also train their clients’ marketers and help implement marketing campaigns. Marketing consultants frequently deal with social media, and many incorporate big data and analytics into their analysis and recommendations for their clients. If you like working with advertisements and effectively spreading awareness to the general public, this could be a great type of consulting work for you. A prior degree in marketing would be ideal for a position like this. If you are interested, you can try looking into Simon Kucher. Simon Kucher is one of the top firms in marketing consulting.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored three types of consulting, but there are so many different types of consulting work that you can do. You should look into consulting firms whose specializations and focuses align with your interests. If you are thinking about becoming a consultant, go ahead and start exploring the specific types of consulting work out there!
Daniel Leung is a Presidential Scholar at the University of Southern California. He is majoring in Business Administration, with minors in Applied Analytics and the Entertainment Industry
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