Consultants are hired by companies in order to resolve a specific issue they are facing in order to maximize growth and improve business performance. A consultant identifies and assesses key problem areas and recommends suggestions in order to improve them. Consultants bring specialist skills in business strategy, manufacturing, finance, human resource, marketing, and information technology (IT).
Required Skills
- Analytical skills: Employers look for graduates with the ability to gather information, analyze it in detail, and come to a conclusion
- Leadership skills: As a consultant, you will be constantly growing which means you could be managing a staff or team within a few years
- Problem-solving skills: One of the key skills a consultant must have is the ability to solve problems using available data or sometimes even create data where it’s not available
- Communication skills: Consulting firms look for consultants who can handle clients in difficult circumstances. Sometimes a consultant could be working with top CEO or sometimes with factory workers, so strong communication skills with the ability to build relationships is a must
- Technical skills: Some consulting companies require skills in advanced excel, data modelling, VBA, or SQL. Programming skills such as C and big data languages such as Hadoop and Python are also popular for extracting and analyzing data
Top Consulting Courses
Consulting firms do require you to hold a degree but they do not specify which one because candidates from all backgrounds are required. Having a degree in engineering, maths, science, statistics, finance, business, big data, or science is an added advantage but there are some programs that prepare students specifically for a career in consultancy.
- MSc Business (Consulting) (University of Warwick)
- MSc Business Analytics (Imperial College London)
- MSc Management and Strategy (London School of Economics)
- MSc Business Technology Consulting (Henley Business School
- MSc Management Consulting (University of Leeds)
- MSc Management Consultancy and organisational change (Birkbeck, University of London)
- MSc in Human Resource Management and Consulting (University of Bath)
- MSc Business Analysis & Consulting (University of Strathclyde)
- MSc Business Analysis and Consultancy (University of Hertfordshire)
- MSc Strategic Marketing and Consulting (University of Birmingham)
- MSc Management Consultancy (Birmingham City University)
An MBA degree or a degree in finance also prepares for a career in consultancy.
Top Employers in the UK
- Accenture
- A.T Kearney
- Bain & Company
- BCG
- Charles River Associates
- Credo
- FTI Consulting
- Hymans Robertson
- Deloitte
- Ernst & Young
- FTI Consulting
- KPMG
- Marakon
- McKinsey & Company
- Oliver Wyman
- PwC
- Roland Berger
Study Consulting Courses in the UK
If you need further help to start your career as a consultant and are seeking pieces of advice for the courses above arrange a free consultation with SI-UK India today.
I sincerely thank SI-UK for getting me accepted to UCL. The MSc in Urban Development and Planning is extremely competitive, but the right guidance provided by SI-UK made my dream of studying at University College London a reality. The services were exceptional from beginning to end. 
