Roles in consulting: explaining different job titles and career stages

Interested in joining a consulting firm? If you’re going for an entry-level role, you might want to know what opportunities lie ahead if you climb the consulting career ladder.

To help you understand how your career could progress , we’ll outline the different consultant job titles and how they relate to varying levels of seniority.

We’ll explain the differences in the following roles in consulting:

• Analyst
• Associate consultant
• Senior associate or senior consultant
• Principal consultant or senior manager
• Director

Many graduates begin their consulting career journey as analysts. It’s a common entry-level role within consultancy.

As an analyst, you'll spend most of your time supporting clients, taking on responsibility for part of the problem-solving process. You'll support a team of consultants in research, data collection and analysis. As you’re still new to the consulting world, you’ll take part in training and development programmes to build your skills.

After two to five years, analysts who prove themselves may secure a promotion to associate consultant (sometimes called a consultant analyst).

As an associate consultant, you’re expected to identify issues, form hypotheses and help with the implementation of change.

Associates manage larger aspects of the problem-solving process than analysts. Associates also make recommendations and present findings.

If you become an associate consultant, you’ll also structure workloads and manage the analysts working on the project. That’s a tick to gaining managerial experience!

During your time in an associate consultant role, you’ll also gain sector-specific knowledge and further develop your core consultancy skills. You’ll know a lot more now you’re an associate, but you’ll likely still have professional training to keep growing those skills.

If you thrive as an associate, your next step on the consulting career ladder is to become a senior associate or a senior consultant. Your exact job title will vary depending on who you work for but, in general, senior roles involve overseeing part of a large project or leading a smaller project (similar to a project manager).

Senior associates assign work to their teams. They’re also responsible for managing those teams.

If you want to be a senior consultant, you’ll need to be happy to work independently on client-facing projects. You’ll also have to get involved with your consulting firm’s sales, marketing and leadership strategies.

Want to know if you’ve got what it takes to grab a senior role? Check out our list of the key skills consulting firms look for.

As a principal consultant or senior manager, you’ll project manage all phases of your projects. You’ll also be accountable for the timely delivery of each project. It’s on you to make sure everyone meets their deadlines.

Principal consultants nurture and manage the talent within their team. They also strategically oversee the client work they deliver.

If you get to a principal position, you’ll participate in service proposition (ie. how the firm views its value and how you’ll sell it to your clients), business development work and thought leadership.

Taking on a director role in a consulting firm will be a fair few years down the line from where you are now. However, it’s worth aiming high. If you want to be a director, you can get there.

As a director, you’re seen as an expert. Typically, you’ll be a strategic adviser to senior clients within your consulting firm. You'll also be responsible for generating new business and developing client relationships.

Directors oversee a firm’s growth and direction. As a result, you’ll have to come up with innovative strategies and prove that you’re getting positive results.

There are various roles along the consulting career ladder. While exact consultant job titles vary from firm to firm, analysts are usually the most junior and directors are typically the most senior. In between, you’ll come across roles in consulting like associate consultants, senior associates and principal consultants.

Consulting is an exciting industry to be part of, with opportunities to grow your career as you gain experience and skills.