What background or degree/if at all do you need to be one?
In: 0
The background you need is the ability to solve problems. Without a whole lot of ramp-up and training and stuff like an employee would have.
That means talking to people, to understand what they’re trying to do, and what problems they’re having, and come up with a workable solution and maybe oversee it or do it yourself, depending on the circumstances.
My first consulting gig consisted of a company that had an ‘impossible’ deadline and figuring out what problems they were having. They were doing something new to them, which no one really understood and they had no procedures for, so everyone on the team was kind of doing their own thing in their own way, inconsistently and incompatibly, which was really slowing them down. I set up some guidelines for consistency and worked along with them to hit that ‘impossible’ deadline. Then I went back to my day job.
Second was a case where they’d hired multiple contractors and all of them had failed to deliver. I dug into it and the problem was that it wasn’t really clear what they were supposed to be doing, and even if someone *did* build something to the specification, it wouldn’t meet the client’s actual needs because the spec was insufficient. So I helped them figure out what they actually needed, and since it was pretty small I also built it for them.
Third was an ongoing gig with multiple cases for the same company. They all pretty much came down to the company had hired an outside agency to do something and it didn’t meet their needs. And nobody in the company understood it. Or someone had been doing something ‘the way it’s always been done’ and that was causing problems but they didn’t know what else to do.
The main thing about consulting is actually talking to people and figuring out where the disconnect is and giving them a path forward to solve their problem. Sometimes you then do it yourself, sometimes you coach/mentor their people through it, or recommend someone else who specializes in that. Sometimes just actually figuring out what the problem is and some potential solutions is all they need – they just didn’t know what questions to ask or what options there were.
Basically, you’re bringing an outside, unbiased view, and problem-solving. Everyone has problems that they don’t fully understand, sometimes don’t even know how to articulate, and may or may not have the experience to solve – if they understand it clearly and have a path to a solution. That’s where the consultant comes in. To get them past that barrier.
Latest Answers