Are you a natural problem-solver? Do you enjoy finding solutions to complex puzzles? Do you like the idea of helping businesses achieve their goals? If so, you might be suited to a career in the consulting industry.
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Different areas of the consulting sector
The consulting industry consists of different specialisms. Three of the biggest areas are management consulting, financial consulting and strategy consulting.
Management consulting
Management consulting involves helping businesses achieve their full growth potential by tackling diverse problems, including refining business models and helping them market to client
Management consultants work with companies of all sizes and sectors, public and private. Some specialise in certain areas, like tech or sustainability. A management consultant’s workload is a mix of data analysis, advice-giving and coming up with corporate strategies.
As a management consultant, your typical goal is to help the businesses you support expand their client bases and increase their revenues.
If you find the idea of a varied workday with different tasks exciting, look into what a management consulting career could involve.
Financial consulting
Financial consulting firms advise their clients on how to plan their finances. Because of this, the financial consultants who work there are sometimes called financial advisers. However, there is a distinction.
A financial adviser focuses on personal wealth, while financial consultants deal with corporate wealth.
Financial consultants advise on organisations’ finances and preside over deals and compensation packages for executive teams. Good financial consultants have deep sector knowledge and understand how a company handles its finances. Part of their job is to increase their client’s value in the eyes of shareholders.
Strategy consulting
Strategy consultants play a significant role in high-level decisions, including mergers and acquisitions, market entry strategies and structural reorganisation.
As strategy consultants typically work for an external firm, they’re able to act as an unbiased third party. Sometimes, they’ll support two companies on either side of a transaction. Strategy consultants can help businesses that are reluctant to share information with each other reach a mutually beneficial deal. Plus, they’re sometimes a legal requirement when firms aren’t allowed to communicate with each other (ie. during a merger process).
Strategy consultants are sought-after because of their industry-specific knowledge. Plus, businesses value their discretion.
Some of the world’s top consulting firms specialise in strategy consulting, including Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Want to know about what a career as a strategy consultant would involve? Read more about what exactly strategy consulting is.
Typical roles in the consulting sector
Not every role in the consulting industry falls under management, financial or strategy consulting specialisms. Plus, not every job title will include the word consultant.
There’s a wide variety of roles in consulting, including:
Management consultant
A management consultant is a problem-solver brought in by companies when they lack expertise in an area and are struggling to move their business forward.
Management consultants usually work as part of a large consulting firm or as a freelancer. In most cases, they’ll be contractors rather than employees of the businesses they help. However, there are exceptions. Some big firms have in-house consultancy teams.
If you work as a management consultant, you could be helping optimise resource allocation one day, coming up with a better business model the next and then evaluating a marketing strategy. Day-to-day tasks vary but everything has the aim of improving the business – usually to increase sales revenue and market share, but sometimes to improve processes and drive efficiency.
Management consultants see every side of a business. Organisations trust them to target the areas that require the most assistance.
Project management office (PMO) manager
The project management office (PMO) is a department in an organisation which oversees how projects are run throughout the company. Within the area, there are distinct roles and seniority levels. It falls under the umbrella of consultancy because PMO jobs look at the performance of projects at an organisational level. That’s different from project managers who are responsible for the day-to-day running of individual projects.
In the PMO office, your job is to ensure the smooth completion of projects within an organisation, operating within strict time and budget limits. You’ll split your time across different activities. Typical tasks include things like analysing and writing progress reports, providing advice on how to optimise processes and presenting your findings to senior management.
If you’ve got great organisational skills and work as effectively with numbers as with people, a career in the PMO might be a good fit for your skill set.
Strategy consultant
Strategy consultants conduct organisational research and meet with key stakeholders to produce strategies that target their goals. While there’s an element of quantitative analysis involved in conducting market and competitor research, strategy consultants have a highly social job. They need to be confident networking with senior management of large corporate firms during critical periods for their organisations.
As a strategy consultant, you’ll need to divide your time between client calls, face-to-face meetings and research. No two days will be the same.
IT consultant
IT consultants address the technological needs of their clients.
As firms grow more reliant on modern technology like artificial intelligence (AI), automation and cloud software, the demand for knowledgeable IT consultants is rising. As an IT consultant, your job may involve analysing a company’s specific tech needs, talking with management about their goals and designing or installing systems that address those targets. It’s a role that rewards those with a genuine passion for the latest tech developments.
The greater emphasis on technical skills means it’s well-suited to graduates from computer-based and numerical disciplines.
Change management
Companies bring in change management consultants (also known as change managers) when they’re undergoing organisational change. The changes could be improving their existing processes (ie. adopting new software) or taking the business in a new direction (which may involve a company restructure and redundancies).
Change managers ensure business transformations – big or small – go as smoothly as possible by identifying potential risks, developing and communicating a change methodology to the workforce (ie. explaining what the change is and why it’s happening) and addressing any resistance head-on.
Good change managers tend to be highly goal-oriented individuals who are good at balancing the needs and wants of management with what’s achievable within deadlines and budgets. Above all, change managers are effective mediators who will settle disputes and get people on board with unsettling change.
If you’ve got great conflict resolution and project management skills, you might enjoy a career in change management.
Risk and compliance consultant
Risk and compliance consultants make sure that companies operate ethically and transparently and adhere to government regulations. They work across a huge range of issues, including investigating allegations of corruption and helping corporate clients meet their sustainability goals.
As a risk and compliance consultant, you’ll need a strong grasp of the financial and non-financial risks that endanger companies. You may specialise in tax, audit, cyber-security or another function.
Skills and qualifications
To work in the consulting industry, you’ll need basic IT proficiency as you’ll do a lot of work online (ie. video calls, word processing, spreadsheets, etc). If you want to become an IT consultant, you’ll need far more advanced technical knowledge. Consultants of all types also need solid research abilities.
Some of the key soft skills you’ll need include:
- Teamwork. Consultants need to work with others, whether with their team or clients. Some specialisms like change management also require you to resolve conflict, so collaboration skills will help you in your daily work.
- Commercial awareness. Consultants are specialists who fill in knowledge gaps, so you’ll need to be commercially aware. Consultants have to understand the key events and market trends within their field. Part of commercial awareness involves staying up to date with developments and research.
- Communication. Whether you’re liaising with a client or presenting to management, you’ll need to be able to confidently communicate your ideas succinctly.
- Initiative. A good consultant can make tough decisions on the go and step up to a leadership position at any given time. Wondering how to show you’ve got what it takes? Think about a time when you led a workgroup, sports team or uni society through a problem and mention it during your application.
Find out more about the top skills consulting firms look for.
Higher education
Most consulting grad schemes will require a degree at a 2:1 grade or above but won’t ask for a specific subject.
As consulting is such a diverse field, consulting firms value having employees from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives – whether you’re a maths whizz, a musician or a linguist. Firms look for candidates with the right skills and personality who they believe will perform to a high standard as a consultant. It isn’t always about what degree you’ve got on paper.
Don’t have a 2:1? Don’t worry. It won’t always be essential. Check out our advice on how to get your dream graduate role with a 2:2.
Qualifications
The most recognised professional certification in consulting is the Chartered Manager Institute (CMI). There are multiple qualification levels depending on your level of seniority. ChMC is the highest professional status in management consulting.
You can complete the levels independently or as part of a degree. Some employers will also pay for you to take on CMI certifications.
Work experience
Although not essential, having a summer internship in consulting will help you understand which type of consulting you’re most interested in. It also puts you in a better position for securing a grad job.
Salaries
Consulting firms make money by charging a fee for their services on a project. This means a business pays a firm in exchange for access to their expertise (ie. their consultants). How much the consulting firm pays their consultants depends on several factors, including location, the size of the business and the consultant’s level of seniority.
As of 2025, according to the National Careers Service, management consultants earn between £27,000 (as a starting salary) and £60,000 (once more experienced). Different consulting specialisms and certain companies will pay more than others.
If you secure a role at one of the biggest consulting firms, you’ll typically earn a higher wage once you’ve established yourself. In larger firms, there are usually more opportunities for promotions to senior roles with higher salaries. In some consulting firms, you’ll also be able to earn bonuses.
Freelance consultants dictate their own salary and working hours. They’re paid directly by the businesses they consult. How much they earn will depend on what they charge the clients they work with.
Key employers
Many employers are looking to hire ambitious, talented grads for consulting roles.
Here are some of the key companies to consider working for:
The application process
Fancy yourself as a consultant? Here are the stages to expect in the recruitment process.
CVs and cover letters
The first step in applying for a consulting role is to complete an online application. This stage will usually involve filling in your basic details, education history and uploading your CV and cover letter.
Recruiters won’t spend long looking at your CV, so having a good layout is important. You want it to be clear and scannable for busy recruiters. Learn more about how to write a CV.
Your cover letter is an opportunity to tell the recruiter more about yourself, why you’re interested in the company and what skills you’ll bring to the role. You need to tailor your cover letter for each application as recruiters won’t be impressed by anything generic. Read our tips about writing an impressive cover letter.
Online and psychometric tests
The next stage of your consulting application is usually a series of online psychometric and aptitude tests. Depending on the firm, the tests will explore different areas including your numerical reasoning, deductive and inductive logic, verbal reasoning and situational judgment.
Many consulting firms create bespoke tests for their roles. Look on the website of the organisation you’re applying to and dig for more information.
Telephone and video interviews
If your initial application and your test results impress your potential employer, they may invite you for a remote interview with a member of the recruitment team.
While a telephone interview will be live (just like a phone call), the term ‘video interview’ can refer to two different things. A video interview is either a live video call or a pre-recorded video. If it’s live, you’ll talk to an interviewer over video – the same as you would face-to-face. If it’s pre-recorded, you’ll have to answer pre-set questions in front of a camera. Sometimes, recruiters will use a platform (such as HireVue) to assess your recorded answers with an AI algorithm.
In any case, you’ll likely have to answer competency-based questions to show you’ll suit the role. Need some help here? Check out our interview advice for students and graduates.
Case study interviews
As part of your consulting application, you’ll probably be asked to complete what’s known as a case study interview.
A case study interview is when you’re given a simplified business situation (usually fictional) and assessed on how well you deal with it.
These interviews usually take place online during an initial testing stage or in person at an assessment centre. Although case studies give you a taste of what you’d do on the job, employers don’t use them to assess your specific knowledge. Instead, employers use them to find out more about your thought process, your problem-solving skills and how well you respond under pressure.
Typically, case study interviews are timed and observed by an interviewer. You’ll need to draw upon your analytical skills and creativity as you work to produce a bespoke solution while being mindful of time.
Learn more about smashing this stage of the recruitment process by finding out how to crack a consulting case study interview.
Assessment centres
If you’ve made it through the initial recruitment process, you’ll be invited to attend an assessment centre. Sometimes, they will be remote – known as a virtual assessment centre. When they’re an in-person event, you’ll usually attend a workplace. The term ‘centre’ is confusing as it refers to the activities, not a place. If you’re invited to an assessment day, it’s the same thing as an assessment centre.
An in-person assessment centre is usually a full or half-day event consisting of tests, case studies and group exercises. Sometimes, you’ll take part in additional interviews. If you do, the interviews will likely be with senior staff in the consulting profession rather than recruiters, so it’s important to brush up on your technical skills beforehand.
Whether face-to-face or remote, your personality will be on display throughout the day, so make sure you come across as the friendly and professional person you are. When working with others, you’ll need to strike the right balance between speaking up and allowing fellow candidates to contribute their ideas.
After the assessment centre, expect to hear back from the firm about what the next stage will be. If you don’t get the job, ask for feedback as it will guide you in future applications.
If you’ve made it to this stage, check out our assessment centre tips and advice.
Consulting sector graduate jobs and schemes
Interested in getting into consulting?
Explore available roles in the consulting industry and take your first step towards a consulting career.
