A guide to different types of consulting

Consultants identify, analyse and provide solutions for their clients. The kind of problems they address will depend on the type of consulting service they offer.

We’ll outline the varied consultancy types by explaining:

• Typical types of consulting services
  • Strategy consulting
  • Management consulting
  • Research consulting
  • Transport consulting
• What do consultants do?
• Why do organisations use consulting firms?
• Leading employers in consulting
• Skills you need for the consulting sector

There are several types of consulting career paths available to grads just like you. Each consulting area presents different challenges and requires slightly different skills to excel.

Here's a quick overview of four types of consulting to help you decide where to focus your attention.

Strategy consulting involves advising organisations on high-level decisions in an unbiased fashion. As a strategy consultant, you use your deep industry knowledge to deliver the best results.

For a deep dive, check out our article explaining strategy consulting.

Management consulting is about working with businesses to improve their performance by providing expert advice to solve problems and encourage growth.

A management consultant will often fill a business’s skills gap. It’s usually cheaper for a company to source external help from a consultancy firm than hire new individuals to manage a project.

Within management consulting, there are also different specialisms.

You might offer consultancy focused on operations, HR, finances or digital transformation strategies. Strategy consulting is also considered a type of management consultancy.

Want to know more? Read our guide on management consulting.

Research consulting focuses on conducting specialised and targeted research on behalf of a client.

Research consultants analyse information and then produce a summary of key findings. They’re normally experts in a particular field (sometimes scientific) and provide reports in areas the company's staff can’t.

If you’d like to be a research consultant, read more in our research consulting explainer.

Transport consulting concerns the movement of people and helping public authorities and private companies improve their transportation systems.

Part of transport consulting involves looking for sustainable solutions for growing populations. As a result, you could work with clients who need to rethink how to deliver better services and shift people to use lower carbon modes of transportation such as trains, buses and bikes. You’ll also consider how funding transport projects leads to economic growth.

While the role of a consultant will vary depending on the type of consulting they work in, there are some general things all consultants do.

Consultants collaborate with clients to identify their problems, analyse the situation (both by digging into data and looking at the bigger picture) and come up with solutions to address any issues.

Most consultants will work as employees in consulting firms. The types of clients that use the services of consulting firms include:

• Small and large corporations
• Investment firms (eg. private equity and hedge fund firms)
• Government organisations

If you want to explore the topic more, read our article on what consultants do.

If you’re wondering why businesses use consulting firms, here are a few reasons why organisations benefit from using the services of consultants:

• Consultants help organisations gain an outside perspective. Sometimes, people working within a business can’t spot solutions. An outsider can come at problems with a fresh perspective.
• The business needs specialist skills to solve a specific problem. Instead of hiring somebody new, many businesses will reach out to a consulting firm that already employs the right expert.
• The organisation needs an extra person to fully focus on a project. Some businesses hire consultants temporarily, especially if they have an issue that they need someone to quickly solve. A consultant will focus on the set task as their only job – getting the problem solved quicker and freeing up existing employees’ time.

Most consultants will work for consulting firms. Some of the leading employers in consultancy are:

• Accenture
• OC&C Strategy Consultants
• Alpha FMC
• Deloitte
• EY
• PwC

Learn more about the leading graduate employers in consulting and what they can offer you.

Whatever type of consulting you’d like to work in, you’ll need the following skills to succeed:

• Teamworking
• Commercial awareness
• Organisation
• Problem-solving
• Communication skills
• Attention to detail

For more information, explore the key skills consulting firms look for.

Consultancy is an exciting sector to be part of. As there are different types of consulting, such as management, research, transport and strategy consulting, there are varied opportunities. All roles in consulting firms share some things in common (such as the need to be a sharp problem-solver), but you can carve out your own path based on your expertise.

If you want to learn the ins and outs of consultancy, our career path guide on consulting is a great place to start. It covers a wide range of topics, including consulting lingo and consulting salary expectations.

If you want to start your journey into the industry but don't know what to include on your application, use our handy CV template for consulting.