If you’ve ever considered consultancy as a career, you may have wondered about the types of consultancy jobs and what the best option may be for you. Consultancy, much like entrepreneurship, requires an in-depth understanding of establishing and running a business. But depending on the type of consultancy you want to offer, you may also need to develop different sets of skills. This post focuses on the highest paid consultancy jobs and what you need to master to be chosen for them.
Best Paying Consultancy Jobs & Most In Demand With/Without an MBA
The intellectual appeal and financial rewards that the consultancy industry entails earn it a lot of attention from people of all ages. Both younglings, just out of college, and veterans who want to slow down their careers, look at consultancy as an option. But what exactly does it mean to be a consultant? And does a successful, financially rewarding career in consulting require an MBA? Well, contrary to what most people believe, you don’t need an MBA to succeed at consulting. In fact, getting an MBA doesn’t guarantee your success in the world of consulting. It’s your skills and ability to make things work that matters, along with your ability to make choices. Would you invest in online advertising or offline networking and small but essentials such as consultant liability insurance?
Difference between consultants with MBA vs. without MBA
Technically, if you are a consultant with a Bachelor’s Degree in finance, marketing or operations, and have over five years of experience providing certain services, you could get a well-placed job in any Fortune 500 company or even generate tons of business on your own. Yet, some people believe that an MBA is an absolute requisite for getting a well-paid consulting job. Here are the differences between consultants with an MBA and those without, so you can decide for yourself.
Without MBA
Without an MBA, you can still succeed at consultancy if you focus on developing your skills and creating proof in terms of what you can make happen for clients. On the negative side, an entry-level career in consultancy may not pay as much as you would earn if you completed your MBA. However, you may earn the same salary if your skills are worth it.
With MBA
According to studies, business school graduates may make 140% more at their jobs than their peers. But this isn’t necessarily the norm. You could get paid as much as an MBA graduate if you have the skill set to warrant it. But an MBA comes with certain advantages. If you’re in one niche of consulting and would want to switch to another, an MBA can help you get a fresh start without losing any momentum or your value. An MBA also comes with the added confidence, extra training, and other such advantages.
Irrespective of whether you’ve completed your MBA or not, you can increase your earning as a consultant by choosing certain niches over others in which to specialize. Here’s a list of the types of consultants that are in demand or the highest paid types of consultants.
List of highest paid consultants
Management consultancy, in general, holds some of the most highly-paid jobs in the world. In fact, many of the Fortune 500 companies, such as Mckinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Deloitte hire expert consultants for very big salaries. When you begin your career as a consultant, it would be ideal to choose a niche in consulting that has the most highly paid jobs and opportunities. Here’s a list of potential consultant jobs that you could explore:
1. Strategy consultants
Taking a top-down view of a business, strategy consultants audit a company’s long-term vision and trajectory. Involving C-suite executives and managers of the highest level, strategy consultants analyze how you have allocated resources by identifying new markets and comparing their value to that of your existing target markets.
2. Company growth & lead generation consultants
Referred to differently across the globe, company growth and lead generation consultants are responsible for optimizing one of the most important aspects of a business – business development and revenue generation. By analyzing how you allocate resources, target prospects and convert them, company growth and lead generation consultants focus on transforming your business.
3. Trusts and pension consultancy
Trust and pension may be a less-known form of consultancy, but rest assured that there’s a lot of money in it. Employers generally provide their employees with pension benefits. To manage this aspect of their business, employers hire pension consultants. The same goes for trusts. Company trusts are complicated to manage and trust consultants, who usually also have a background in law, help companies manage their trusts and funds.
4. Financial advisory consultants
A key part of a business’ survival and success depends on how well its finances are managed. Financial advisory consultants are those who explore how a business can cut costs, increase cash flow, and reduce risks in a legal and ethical manner. These consultants are expected to pass an exam, which in the case of the US is the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), to obtain the license necessary to serve as a financial advisory consultant.
5. Business operations consultant
By auditing the functioning of an organization, business operations consultants focus on analyzing the operations chain in businesses and figuring out how they can be optimized. By understanding client management, product delivery, raw material procurement and other such aspects of the operations chain, business operations consultants cut costs and improve productivity for your business.
6. Investment consultants
Investment consultants are those who work with investors by providing them with investment portfolios on conducting thorough research of the market and the performance of the investable assets. From identifying new potential investments to monitoring the performance of a client’s current investments, investment consultants provide a long list of services.
7. Financial risk management consultants
Financial risk management involves using financial instruments to understand and manage a company’s risks. Financial risk management consultants deal with market risk, credit risk, operational risk, inflation risk, and other such factors that may affect the economic value of a business. By calculating and making suggestions to eliminate such risks, financial advisory clients ensure that large businesses don’t suffer the consequences of unpredictable financial circumstances.
8. Economic consultants
Using their knowledge of various economic laws and policies, economic consultants advise businesses on how to form or change their economic policies in accordance with market shifts and trends. Economic consultancy does not only apply to the actual business but also to crime, education, law, politics, religion, and war.
9. Human resources consultants
Human resource consultants are engaged for two basic human resource roles- finding the right resources to recruit and managing employees currently engaged by a company. Human resource consultants focus on all management and tasks associated with employees. Human resource consultants also focus on employee engagement, compensation, benefits, talent mobility, and human resource management through acquisitions and mergers.
10. Regulatory compliance consultants
When launching products locally and globally, there’s some thought that you need to give to regulatory compliance. The Government of every country requires certain regulations to be met, irrespective of what you’re launching and when. Regulatory compliance consultants have in-depth knowledge about various regulations such as the FDA and the policies you need to adhere to for compliance.
11. Tax consultants
Tax filing can get complicated, especially for large organizations. Tax consultants, who are typically well-versed with tax policies and regulations, provide advice to tax filers, ensuring that they’re adhering to required norms. Tax consultants are hired to minimize tax obligations without creating a situation where the business may suffer conflict with the IRS or another such tax monitoring organization.
12. Business process management consultants
For larger organizations, business processes are complicated. They involve rigorous regulations and a lot of paperwork. Business process management consultants help businesses document, analyze, improve, and automate their business processes to improve efficiency and output. The major benefit of hiring a business process management consultant is to reduce unnecessary business process costs.
13. IT consultants
IT infrastructure plays an important role in the functioning of any organization, regardless of the industry. Managing IT infrastructure can be challenging with a long list of options in terms of brands and possible infrastructure that you could invest in. IT Consultants understand the requirements of businesses and suggest infrastructure architecture that you can apply to your business.
14. Accounting consultants
When a business extends across industries and products, managing finances can be tricky. Accounting consultants are responsible for reading financial statements, understanding payable accounts and figuring out how a company can save money. In addition to these functions, Accounting Consultants also do financial forecasting and determining the profitability of your business.
Consultancy jobs are known to be among the highest paying in the world. With the right strategies, you can secure a highly paid consultancy job for yourself. This post lists various jobs in consultancy that tend to be paid more than other consultancy jobs.
