What Is Consulting?

Learn Consulting's Definition & TRUE Meaning

What Is Consulting? The Official Consulting Definition

  • Consulting means “engaged in the business of giving expert advice to people working in a specific field.”
  • Consulting is the business of providing expert advice to a specific group of people.
  • A consultant is someone who has some level of expertise that a particular group of people find valuable

Is it profitable?

  • And there is a lot of money in consulting..
  • ... a LOT of money…
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers’ consulting division brought in $15.9 Billion in 2016, making them the largest player in a $148 Billion consulting market.

Why People Hire Consultants

  • 1. They can’t get there on their own.

    Someone might have their current situation and they might have their desired situation, and they have already tried very hard to get there on their own, but it’s just not working out.

  • 2. They want to get there faster.

    People want to achieve things as quickly as possible. Really smart people also understand specialization, and that if they try to learn something from scratch, they are going to learn it significantly more slowly than having an expert teach it to them.

The Three Main Types Of Consultants

When someone says, "I'm a consultant," they are typically going to fall into one of three categories.

Management Consulting Corporate Consulting Independent Consulting

Management Consulting

Management Consulting is what most people think of when someone says “consulting.” This field is dominated by large firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group, which are hired to help enterprise businesses improve strategy and operations or manage significant business events like mergers and acquisitions. Management consultants make some of the highest salaries in the professional world, and as you would expect with such a lucrative career, getting into the field is extremely difficult and ludicrously competitive. You need top-tier grades, you need to make the right connections at networking events, and you need to absolutely nail each stage of the interview process. And things don’t ease up once you’re in. You will need to be a top performer at each level in a promote-or-be-fired progression system.

Corporate Consulting

Like the word “consulting,” the category of corporate consulting covers a massive spectrum of job descriptions and focuses. This is more of a catch-all category for those with a “consulting” job description in the corporate world. This can look like in-house consulting services, implementation teams, B2B consulting businesses, and a host of other things. As a general rule, people in this category have pursued the corporate track and often have at least a decade of experience in their industry. Fields where in-house consultants are common include software, IT, and other technology fields.

Independent Consulting

Management Consulting is what most people think of when someone says “consulting.” This field is dominated by large firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group, which are hired to help enterprise businesses improve strategy and operations or manage significant business events like mergers and acquisitions. Management consultants make some of the highest salaries in the professional world, and as you would expect with such a lucrative career, getting into the field is extremely difficult and ludicrously competitive. You need top-tier grades, you need to make the right connections at networking events, and you need to absolutely nail each stage of the interview process. And things don’t ease up once you’re in. You will need to be a top performer at each level in a promote-or-be-fired progression system.

Independent Consulting

Management Consulting is what most people think of when someone says “consulting.” This field is dominated by large firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group, which are hired to help enterprise businesses improve strategy and operations or manage significant business events like mergers and acquisitions. Management consultants make some of the highest salaries in the professional world, and as you would expect with such a lucrative career, getting into the field is extremely difficult and ludicrously competitive. You need top-tier grades, you need to make the right connections at networking events, and you need to absolutely nail each stage of the interview process. And things don’t ease up once you’re in. You will need to be a top performer at each level in a promote-or-be-fired progression system.

Independent Consulting

Management Consulting is what most people think of when someone says “consulting.” This field is dominated by large firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group, which are hired to help enterprise businesses improve strategy and operations or manage significant business events like mergers and acquisitions. Management consultants make some of the highest salaries in the professional world, and as you would expect with such a lucrative career, getting into the field is extremely difficult and ludicrously competitive. You need top-tier grades, you need to make the right connections at networking events, and you need to absolutely nail each stage of the interview process. And things don’t ease up once you’re in. You will need to be a top performer at each level in a promote-or-be-fired progression system.

Management Consulting
Corporate Consulting
Independent Consulting
Independent Consulting
Independent Consulting