How To Become A Strategic Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a strategic consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Robin Cormier

Companies often only hire enough manpower for the business as usual or everyday tasks. As such, only the departments that directly contribute to the achievement of company goals have full-time personnel. However, there may be times when the company would have to pursue a project outside of its usual activities. This would require extra manpower or skills not available in the current roster of employees. As such, they hire consultants. For projects involving strategic management techniques or anything related to business strategy, companies engage with strategic consultants.

Strategic consultants are experienced people in the industry. They have enough credentials to be seen as experts in a particular field. This is how they build a roster of clients and how they keep being tapped by more. They work with different clients, and in doing so, they get to know the companies. This is important because the projects they work on should be specialized to the company.

If you enjoy working on various projects and with different people, this is for you. You need to have high business acumen and great people skills.

What general advice would you give to a Strategic Consultant?

Robin Cormier

Assistant Professor, Montana State University - Billings

While college graduates begin to launch their careers, they also face uncertainty about job opportunities. This can be a daunting time in their life. First and foremost, they should be proud of their achievements. There are many steps they can take to prepare for a future career, such as developing a network and building a strong resume. However, in my opinion, the most important advice I would offer new graduates is to pursue their passion. When you are passionate about your career, your life is more fulfilling, and you are more determined to achieve success. Passion shows through how you communicate, develop working relationships, and your level of career investment.

ScoreStrategic ConsultantUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $104,820

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.8

Growth Rate 11%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 14.13%

Black or African American 7.74%

Hispanic or Latino 8.66%

Unknown 4.47%

White 64.83%

Gender

female 41.98%

male 58.02%

Age - 43

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 - 43

Stress Level

6.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

8.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

2.2

Work Life balance is very poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a strategic consultant

Explore strategic consultant education requirements

Most common strategic consultant degrees

Bachelor's

64.9 %

Master's

28.4 %

Doctorate

3.1 %

Start to develop specific strategic consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
Project Management	11.05%
Strategic Sourcing	8.89%
Process Improvement	8.04%
Cloud	5.97%
Cost Savings	5.51%

Complete relevant strategic consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New strategic 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 strategic consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real strategic consultant resumes.

Research strategic consultant duties and responsibilities

Manage CSR budget and agency and provide social media monitoring reporting and analysis to business on corporate reputation and brand issues.
Prepare and submit monthly operational reserves in accordance with GAAP.
Train and educate new and current employees on the MDS process.
Determine where resources have and can be most efficient, maximizing future ROI of stakeholder engagements.

Prepare your strategic consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your strategic 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 strategic 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 Strategic Consultant Resume templates

Build a professional Strategic 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 Strategic Consultant resume.

Apply for strategic consultant jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a strategic 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 strategic consultants rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

Strategic Consultant reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Aug 2020

Pros

As it seeks to solve problems in innovative way

Cons

It needs more patience to apply the true solution and satisfy your client