27.03.2025 Today’s Insights from Forage: What Types of Consulting Careers are Right for Me?
Dear Students,
In the words of Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, (the globally-recognized consultant, author, engineer and founder of the famed Five Forces framework), “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Surprising to hear? Yes and no.
Given the popularity of consulting careers among ambitious international students like you and your friends, many of whom may have visions of advising, developing strategy for and presenting recommendations to clients early on in such assignments, this quote might seem strange.
And yet, Porter’s insight is well-taken. So much of effective strategy as a consultant (and as a professional, more generally) involves demonstrating the power skills that precede doing anything “flashy,” including: curiosity, listening, inquisitiveness, analytical thinking, critical thinking , organizational skills, time management and planning, along with teamwork, problem-solving and others. (In fact, this is exactly why they are known as “power skills*.”)
Thus, while consulting careers may seem exciting from afar, few aspiring professionals (maybe even you?) fully realize how much thought and analysis about what not to do come before any actual client-facing presentation. While there is no question that written and verbal communication competency, strong presentation skills and the ability to influence, negotiate and persuade will play a role in a young consultant’s success (along with some fundamental hard skills, of course), sometimes the most critical thought leadership initially will occur behind the scenes of a your computer in quiet moments of self-reflection.
Nonetheless, for candidates like you, who are committed to pursuing this trajectory, (which is known to be extremely competitive), it’s worth a look at the Forage article below, which highlights various types of consulting careers and the skillsets the field requires as a whole. What’s not a surprise is the range of non-technical skills young talent (like you) will need to tee up, to land and succeed in a consulting position.
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Technology Consulting. Technology consulting focuses on a business’s technology and how that technology is used. These consultants may help with technology a company uses for communication, analytics, reporting, or operations, to name a few.Their goal is to help a business improve efficiency and reach its goals through technical tools.
www.theforage.com
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New grads and prospective interns (which may include you or your friends?) who are seeking a more in-depth competency resource (ideally to discuss with our coaches before pursuing consulting careers) may also want to check out the following piece from Management Consulted: https://managementconsulted.com/consulting-skills/.
Finally, it’s useful to remember that the 110+-year-old occupation of consulting still demands the same resilience and dedication as it always has, and for those motivated students (perhaps even you?) who opt to pursue it, such challenges represent an outstanding continuous learning and growth-oriented experience.
Which continuous learning resources will you be consulting this evening?
Best,
Amy-Louise
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*For a refresher on the origin of the term “power skills,” please see: https://joshbersin.com/2019/10/lets-stop-talking-about-soft-skills-theyre-power-skills/
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Curious about the history of consulting? Please see: https://consultingquest.com/podcasts_smcs/history-of-the-consulting-industry/#:~:text=The%20contemporary%20phase%20of%20the,Consulting%20Industry%20is%20still%20ongoing.
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Interested in Forage, which provides free job simulation experiences for students? Please see: https://consultingquest.com/podcasts_smcs/history-of-the-consulting-industry/#:~:text=The%20contemporary%20phase%20of%20the,Consulting%20Industry%20is%20still%20ongoing.