Should I be a management consultant?

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Senior managers make the big decisions to solve their companies' problems, but sometimes even senior managers need advice.

There are no superheroes for this, but there are management consultants!

Management consultants give advice to help companies and other organizations run better. They answer questions for businesses.

Most management consulting firms specialize in one type of business problem.

Strategy

• How can we expand the business into a new region of the world?

• Why are other companies doing better than we are?

Human Resources

• How can we make the company more inclusive and equitable?

• Why are the best employees working for our competitors and not for us?

Information Technology

• What software can we build to make us more competitive?

• What security problems do we have, and how can we fix them?

Financial

• How do we get better information on our costs and spending?

• If we launch this product, is that very risky?

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

• Learning about the issues by having meetings with personnel in the client company.

• Researching company data, financials & policies to figure out what should be done.

• Writing reports & presentations to communicate to the client what you have learned, what they should do, and why.

• Managing projects by tracking the progress of the project and how much time and money has been spent.

• You like problem solving. Digging through facts and figures to figure something out is fun!

• You're flexible. You enjoy both working on your own, and with lots of other people.

• You like projects.You start them, you do the work, and then you move on to a new challenge.

• You like to travel.You'd be comfortable spending a lot of time away from home, working at clients' workplaces.

• You like clear and consistent expectations that don't change. Your work changes from day to day, often without notice.

• You want predictable hours of work. That's not on offer in this job. You work the hours the project needs, including evenings and weekends.

• You love adrenaline — you enjoy fast-paced, risky activities. You're there to provide sober and rational analysis. There's no room for thrills and high-stakes gambles here.

• You thrive on creative expression and setting your own priorities. You've got two bosses — the client and your own company. They decide the priorities.

Amyl

• Dynamic, outgoing

• Isn't afraid to risk injury in "ambitious" jumps while snowboarding

Beverley

• Organized, focused

• Enjoys working remotely, as long as she doesn't have to give presentations

Reg

• Confident, ambitious

• Enjoys solo projects which allow him to develop his skills

Sylva

• Studious, curious

• Enjoys coordinating projects and teams of volunteers for a local charity

The average annual salary for a management consultant is:

$ 105,132 (USD)

$ 92,706 (CDN)

Want to explore becoming a management consultant?