<p>…and why is it that consulting is a job that someone can do regardless of major? Well, I understand that this is not true in all cases but it <em>seems</em> that way. I say this because I’ve seen people from various educational backgrounds, be it business, philosophy, languages, etc., menion interest in “consulting”…can someone explain to me what that is and why does it seem so accessibile? For example, finish this sentence: “I work at a consulting firm and I do…” I’m just curious and I know several of you probably have some kind of experience or know someone in this field.</p>
<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulting[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulting</a></p>
<p>Consulting is a sort of shorthand for providing specialized skills and services to companies that for some reason don’t have those skills in-house. </p>
<p>Sometimes they are related to technology - a company introducing, say, a new CRM package will very often bring in a consulting team to work with their employees to install and train them on the software.</p>
<p>It might be financial - a private company going public will almost always bring in a consulting team to do the grunt work of lining up all the financial and legal paperwork. Interested in acquiring or being acquired? Same deal, attorneys, financial team, you name it, people hire it in.</p>
<p>Expanding your business into a new country? - you’ll need people on the ground who speak the language, know the rules and regulations, and so forth. Likely you DON’T have them on staff - you hire a consulting firm to set things up and train your people.</p>
<p>Almost any job (except those requiring specific training for licensure like law and some forms of engineering) can filled by people who are trained by the consulting firm in their proprietary way of doing business. They want people who can learn new things quickly and adapt to new situations “on the run” and do it their way, not the way some professor thought was “ideal”.</p>
<p>Consulting is a pretty general term and can refer to anyone who comes intoa business, or a firm or whatever, to give them specialized help and expertise. For isntance, if you are directing a film based around the ethnic conflict in the Balkans, you will likely hire someone who was there for the conflict and hasd firsthand knwoledge of the issue to provide you with details and knowledge to make your film more authentic. This person would be a consultant.</p>
<p>Okay thanks! It’s much clearer now!</p>