What Does a Consultant Look Like? You Might Be Surprised!

Some would wryly say that a consultant is a person between jobs.

On a more serious note, when asked to describe a consultant, these descriptors typically emerge:

· Work for a consulting firm. If not the big 4, perhaps a mid-sized regional consulting firm.

· Male and most likely Caucasian

· Living in a large metro area

· Wearing a suit, a crisply ironed white shirt and tie

· Smart and highly educated

· Specializing in business strategy and enterprise wide solutions

· A road warrior, often traveling most work weeks

· Confident, perhaps even a bit haughty

A few decades ago, that description might have had a high degree of accuracy.

No longer.

The landscape for consulting has changed and as such, you would be hard pressed to come up with one description, for today free-lancers and consultants come in a variety of forms. While some continue to fit the description above, you’ll find that:

· More professionals are working in their own small consultancies or sub-contracting organizations

· Career consultants form a diverse demographic cutting across gender, age, and location

· Demand for free-lance or “on demand” professional services is much broader and can include virtually any function in an organization

In my sixteen years of consulting, I’ve found that consulting as a career can work for people:

· Of all ages

· With a wide variety of marketable skills

· Across geographies

· With various levels of experience

Consulting has been such a good career choice for me, that I want to help others who are interested in this career choice. So join me on March 29th for the first day of the Consulting Business Incubator — a FREE four day event that will help those thinking about or just starting their consulting practice to get focus and momentum. You can learn more here.