Determining Your Management Consultant Salary

If you're considering a career as a consultant, you might be wondering about the typical management consultant salary. Consulting is a great career choice if you have a toolbox full of valuable skills and the experience to be able to put them to good use. However, you have to get paid what you're worth at the end of the day for a career change to work. Since there's no clear guideline as to how much a typical consultant earns in salary, taking the leap into a consulting career can seem too daunting. That being said, significant rewards can be reaped from a career in consulting if you take on the right perspective and approach.

Where Is the Money Coming From?

It's best to look at your management consultant salary in a different way than you would for your current job's salary. Chances are, you're currently working for a single corporate entity from whom you earn a single salary. You earn a steady paycheck, and you've probably built your financial life around that regular source of consistent income.

As a consultant, you'll need to replace that salary, but you won't be able to do it by working for a single client. If you're making $150,000 per year, you can't depend on a single company to replace that income; you'll need to find five clients to pay you $30,000 each over the course of the year, or an equivalent scenario. While it may seem challenging to find the clients you need to match the income levels you're accustomed to, you should also note that consulting gives you the opportunity to move well above the income levels that you've earned in your current position.

This actually gives you much more freedom to control your level of income. What's more, working as a consultant gives you the benefit of creating your own schedule and workload, which is something that you just can't put a price tag on. Sure, you'll probably experience a bit of a struggle as you begin your consulting career, but there's no doubt that you'll be able to reach (and exceed) your desired salary by working hard and staying persistent.

The Organization's Perspective

Another factor to consider if you're worrying about how you'll match your current salary as a consultant is the fact that many businesses are changing their hiring practices. They aren't investing in as many full-time, long-term employees as they might have in the past. Instead, they've done the math and they've realized that hiring consultants is much more effective, in many cases, than hiring permanent team members.

What does this mean for you as a consultant? It means that doors are open much wider for you. If you've been having trouble finding work by performing a traditional job search, you might be surprised at the level of interest you receive once you make yourself available as a consultant. Organizations will show greater interest in you as a short-term, temporary investment. It's really a win-win: organizations get the experience they need, plus they save money. At the same time, consultants like you are able to find significantly more opportunities than they would have found if they had continued performing traditional job searches in their respective fields.

Taking the Leap

Getting into consulting requires you to take a leap of faith, but so does anything else that's worth experiencing in life. Ensuring that you get paid what you're worth (and what you're accustomed to) can be a frightening challenge, but it's a challenge that you're going to have to face if you want to graduate to the next level of your career. You may not match your current salary immediately as a consultant, but you'll be given numerous opportunities to leverage your skill and experience in a way that rewards you handsomely if you're willing to work hard and put your faith in your abilities.

Are you interested in learning more about management consultant salary concerns? Download our free consulting guides and Buddy Hobart's free eBook, “Experience Matters,” for more excellent information and insight.