Helping businesses achieve their goals, the promise of variety in the work you do and the opportunity to share your expertise and experience are a draw for many graduates. However, consulting isn’t a single job but a category with many specialisations. How do you figure out which one is the best fit for you?
In this article we’ll explain what consulting is, what some of the many different consulting niches are, and how you can pick the one that’s your best fit.
What is consulting?
Consulting is where a professional provides advice within a particular area of expertise to help clients resolve specific problems. For example, it might be advice on conflict resolution strategies in human resources or communications with a new market for a client’s product.
Consultants usually have some form of relevant tertiary education and a number of years professional experience. However, the specifics usually depend on the job, specialisation, and the individual.
There are many different types of consultancy work across many different industries. What this means for graduates interested in consulting is that there will likely be jobs in the industry they want to work in, but also the challenge of what specialisation to choose.
What are the different types of Consultancy Specialisations?
Legal Consultant
Legal consultants are professionals that help companies on specific legal matters. For smaller companies that can’t afford or justify having a full-time lawyer on staff legal consultants offer a way for them to navigate specific legal challenges facing the business.
Like law as a field, legal consulting has many other specialisations. For example, compliance consultants ensure the business is complying with relevant state and federal laws.
Human Resource Consultant
Human resource consultants advise companies on employee matters such as recruitment and training, and developing effective conflict resolution systems. The systems human resource consultants advise on can improve employee satisfaction within the business.
Marketing Consultant / Social Media Consultant
Marketing and social media consultants are a broad specialisation that can go from identifying new markets and advising how to reach them to social media campaigns that give the company a stronger online presence. Marketing and social media consulting is a broad field that allows graduates to experiment and find their own specific niche in the industry.
IT Consultant
IT consultants can help companies with both software and hardware, advising them on how it is currently helping or hindering their productivity. This specialisation can involve advising and implementing hardware or software upgrades through to further specialisation in areas such as cyber security and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Financial Consultant
An important pillar of business, perhaps the most important, is profitability. Financial consultants advise and implement strategies to improve and protect the company's profitability. Due to profitabilities importance to business financial consultants are important to smaller businesses right through to the Fortune500.
Operations Consultant
From how raw materials are supplied to a business, to the process of how the finished product ends up on store shelves, operations consultants use data to advise businesses on how they can be more efficient in their processes.
PR Consultant
Public relations consultants advise businesses on how to improve the quality and reach of the company’s presence and help them navigate any sticky PR situations.
Sustainability Consultant
Sustainability consultants focus on the business’ processes to advise and implement strategies that help protect the environment. Sustainability consultants also inform the company on any environmental regulations they need to comply with.
Wellness/Fitness Consultant
Wellness and fitness consultants advise and implement systems within the business that improve employees physical, mental, or nutritional health. Consultants in this specialisation can take a holistic view on the company when advising on strategies or on a personal level. Fitness and wellness consultants will also have some form of certification in one or more wellness categories (such as physical, mental or nutritional health) depending on their specialisation.
Growth Consultant
Using data on the business itself and the market growth consultant advise companies on how they can expand their business. They’ll also identify any potential risks and how they might be avoided.
How do you pick a consulting specialisation?
Graduates looking to pick a consulting specialisation should first identify the industry that interests them and work within that industry. Consultants often have a few years of experience on top of their degree when going into the job so why not use that to your advantage? In the course of your work in your preferred industry you may find that you’ll find specific niches that you enjoy and are good at.
For example, a recent graduate wanting to work in IT may start working in the field broadly and then discover they enjoy working with the changing algorithm that drives SEO. This process of discovery in the course of gaining experience to be a consultant may be a good way to choose a specialisation on top of the normal introspection into what you like, what you’re good at, and what’s available where you live or are willing to move to.
See the current open opportunities in consulting on GradConnection now.