What a management consultant really does
You walk into an organization you do not know, figure out what is really broken, and convince the people in charge to fix it.
FieldBusiness
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Considerable preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for management consultants, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Interview staff and observe how work actually gets done
- Gather and organize data on a problem so the team can see patterns
- Analyze the data and develop two or three options with tradeoffs
- Write findings and recommendations in memos and slide decks
- Present to client leaders and handle their objections
- Check in with the people affected after a change rolls out, and train them on new processes
- Coordinate a small team and juggle client emails and calls all day
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- You are rarely alone with a problem. The work is done in teams and with clients, all day. Face-to-Face Discussions: 74% every day; Work With or Contribute to a Work Group or Team: 50% extremely important (O*NET Work Context)
- You get unusual freedom to decide how to attack a problem, which means no one hands you a checklist. Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals: 50% a lot of freedom (O*NET Work Context)
- Writing is constant. Memos and recommendation documents are a weekly product, not a final step. Written Letters and Memos: 67% once a week or more (O*NET Work Context); Document findings and prepare recommendations: Core, importance 81
- Deadlines hit weekly, and the field is competitive. Time Pressure: 62% once a week or more; Level of Competition: 45% highly competitive (O*NET Work Context)
- The job does not end at the recommendation. You stay to make the change work with the people it affects. Confer with personnel to ensure newly implemented systems or procedures work: Core, importance 87 (O*NET task 2)
How people get into it
Most enter with a bachelor's degree (57% of O*NET respondents say it is required) and a sizable share hold a master's (24%), often an MBA. Common starts are analyst roles at consulting firms or internal strategy and operations teams; industry experience is a frequent route in later.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks at Fairhaven Advisory Group (client: Lakeshore Urgent Care), a fictional company, with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: The trial compresses a multi week engagement into three tasks with one fictional client. It does not show travel to client sites, being on site observing operations in person, managing a client relationship over months, sales and proposal writing, or the long hours some firms expect.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
Other careers you can try
Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 13-1111.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.