Interview of a consultant

I got a management consultant as my interviewee for expert opinion on what it takes to be a consultant. The interviewee is named Frank Gordon and serves as a senior level consultant at Hurst and Baines Consultancy. Hurst and Baines Consultancy is a regional investment consultancy that perform consultancy work for different corporate firms. Gordon’s post is that of the Client Generation Leader. His obligation include bringing the right customers to the firm and pairing them with the right products.
Top consulting Skills and Competencies for Employment.
Consultancy imply having a mix of marketing and sales skills to guarantee that the clients are attracted and sold on the idea of securing the services of the firm. Gordon maintains that the combination should have the perfect blend for a client generation leader to effective at his job. Further, he states that one should have logical reasoning qualities; communication as consultancy entails a lot of liaising between consultants and their clients; leadership and ingenuity which are crucial when guiding clients through unfamiliar topics that may pose new challenges; and the ability to work as a team member. Moreover, he also states the importance of assertiveness and critical thinking because sometimes consultancy may require challenging the status quo and approaching arising issues from new perspectives. For the more technical qualification, Frank Gordon explained the need to at least have a degree in the chosen field of consultancy, his being a doctorate in business administration while also ensuring that one has extensive knowledge in the field they wish to consult in.
Pros and Con’s of a Consulting Career.
Frank also went further to explain that the career path he took by embarking on consultancy has had its advantages and its drawbacks in equal measure. One of the advantages is that the opportunities for career advancement are abundant. The rates of progression among junior consultants are very high and rapid. Another advantage he noted was that consultants could build a vast, strong and powerful network of professionals which appeals to various industry insiders. He also lauded the field for some other reasons including the fact that: one can learn new things with every assignment; the traveling that can be fun; the sufficient compensation and the flexibility of the hours the career offers to consultants.
However, he also stated that the career has its downsides. For instance, he notes that early in the career, the work schedules require a lot of hours often without matching compensation. Moreover, he also notes that consultancy discourages individualism and thus may prove to be a challenge to those who may prefer to work alone or work at a different rate compared to others. He also states that the amount of traveling involved may be too much for someone not comfortable with much traveling.
Consulting behaviors associated with highest proportions of failure.
The habit most associated with failure in the field of consultancy according to Frank Gordon is individualism. Some individuals may simply dislike the idea of working for or with other people. Such people as Frank notes see little use for work done in groups and prefer to work alone for the most part. The challenge that arises as Frank notes is that consultancy requires a lot of communication between the consultants and the clients. This creates a conflict of convenience with those who prefer to work by themselves as the career entails a great deal of sharing information and research.
Pathways internship for near term consulting careers.
Frank Gordon explains that internships are crucial in the field of consultancy just as in any other career path for the fact that they prepare potential recruits for the beginning of their careers. Some firms offer paid internships to successful applicants while others do not. He goes on to explain that Hurst and Baines Consultancy offer opportunities for paid internships with the chance of being hired fully at the end of the internship period. Further, he explains that internships offer much-needed experience to interns on what to expect when they are eventually hired.
Domain Areas in Marketplace generating the Demand for Consulting Services
Regarding the main sources of demand for consulting services, Frank notes that there has been a recognized increase in demand due to the increasing belief that most issues can be solved by consultants. This is also due to the increasing belief that the expertise held by consultants is the most effective in revolutionizing management in various firms. He also notes that in the duration of his career, some employers have expressed the need for consultants to help in identifying problems within their organizations or even in supplementing parts of company’s staff to help them save some finance that they could have otherwise lost. They are also needed to be catalysts for change and objective on lookers suggesting new way to improve efficiency within the various firms which require consultancy aid.
Generalist versus Specialist in terms of Practicing Consultants and Career Advancement
In this regard, Franks states that in his opinion, specialists normally choose to focus their consultancy efforts in a narrow and limited scope such as IT, finance, construction or pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, he considers generalists to be broadly knowledgeable and multifaceted offering consultancy on various fields. The skills and reach of generalists extend much further than that of specialists.