What is a functional consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Dr. Neil Eldin PhD, PE

A functional consultant is an individual who specializes in implementing and customizing software solutions for businesses. They work closely with clients to understand their requirements and configure software to meet their needs. A functional consultant helps businesses optimize their operations and achieve their goals through the use of technology. A functional consultant must have strong analytical and problem-solving skills, as well as excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with clients and team members.

What general advice would you give to a Functional Consultant?

Dr. Neil Eldin PhD, PE

Professor, Website

Things don’t just happen. You must develop a career plan to maximize your salary potential when starting your career. Find the right employer for yourself. For example, if you are mobile and willing to travel, target employers with international projects. After working for a few years, you can request a transfer to an overseas assignment, and this will instantaneously almost double your salary. If you are not mobile and your circumstances do not allow your travel, seek employment with major corporations and seek positions that are done at the home office (e.g., estimating, procurement, and contracting).

ScoreFunctional ConsultantUS Average

Salary

6.7

Avg. Salary $85,317

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

5.3

Growth Rate 9%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.19%

Asian 25.18%

Black or African American 8.46%

Hispanic or Latino 9.56%

Unknown 4.91%

White 51.70%

Gender

female 28.06%

male 71.94%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress Level

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.3

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.8

Work Life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a Functional Consultant?

Pros

High demand for functional consultants in the job market
Attractive salaries and benefits
Opportunities for career growth and advancement
Regular interaction with clients, leading to the development of strong interpersonal skills
Ability to work on interesting and challenging projects

Cons

Long hours, including weekends and holidays
High pressure, with tight deadlines and demanding clients
Frequent travel can be exhausting and disruptive to personal life
Constant learning required to keep up with new technologies and industry trends
Need to balance multiple projects simultaneously, which can be stressful

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Key steps to become a functional consultant

Explore functional consultant education requirements

Most common functional consultant degrees

Bachelor's

65.8 %

Master's

29.2 %

Diploma

2.8 %

Start to develop specific functional consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Business Process	9.14%
Prototyping	8.00%
ERP	7.52%
CRM	3.97%
Test Cases	3.72%

Complete relevant functional consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New functional consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a functional consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real functional consultant resumes.

Research functional consultant duties and responsibilities

Lead project to enhance batch and on-line system, using DB2, VSAM and DYL280.
Used TcpTrace to track and analyze the status of leads in SalesForce.
Analyze impacts and work with SME's, business partners to gather detail requirements and manage risks/ issues.
Design and maintain numerous data warehousing tools to automate the ETL process, data retrieval, integration and reporting functions.

Prepare your functional consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your functional consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a functional consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Functional Consultant Resume templates

Build a professional Functional Consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Functional Consultant resume.

Apply for functional consultant jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a functional consultant job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do functional consultants rate their job?

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Functional Consultant reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Cons

creation report

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2019