Steps for Breaking Into and Succeeding in Consulting

This article will show you how to break into and succeed as a management consultant even if you don't have an MBA or any degree at all. The key to success is ....
Management consulting is one of the professions that endure in a slow economy. Why? Because more than ever, companies need consultants to help them increase revenues and cut costs.

Management consulting is also one of the highest paid professions in the United States. A recent survey by the Association of Management Consulting Firms found entry-level consultants earn an average of $58,000 annually while senior partners earn an average of $259,000 (including bonuses and profit sharing). Self-employed consultants may earn $100 to $350 per hour.

Therefore, if youve been contemplating breaking into this field, wait no more. (Im glad I didnt!) The financial rewards are a real incentive. Other benefits of the job include: intellectual challenge, prestige, opportunities to learn, and high levels of job satisfaction.

Now lets talk about the two paths of management consulting to consider: working for others and going solo. If you dont have much experience or are a new graduate, working for others is probably the wisest choice. If you have already gained sufficient professional experience in a specialized field, going solo is a highly feasible option.

Whichever path you choose, here are some tips to break into and succeed in this field, based on the FabJob.com Guide to Become a Management Consultant http://www.fabjob.com/managementconsultant.asp?affiliate=236.

1. Develop your skills. Management consultants need to be skilled at problem-solving, communication, and management skills such as scheduling and delegating. Other skills and attributes that can help you land a job are basic computer skills, leadership, and an ability to work well under stress.

2. Educate yourself. Contrary to popular belief, you dont need to have a business degree, an MBA or even ANY degree to break into this field. (Having one doesnt hurt either; in fact youll be ahead in the game.) However, you should keep up with current management issues through continuing education or reading business publications.

3. Know what to expect from the job. Familiarize yourself with job titles, specializations (from information technology to organizational development), and the typical consulting job cycle (proposal, brainstorming, data gathering, analysis, and presentation). Even better, learn how to prepare a proposal to get consulting work.

4. Get experience. Ways to get management consulting experience include: pro bono work (volunteering to consult for a non-profit organization), an internship, or by becoming a summer associate for a consulting firm.

5. Decide where you want to work. If your career goal is to work for a consulting firm, decide where you want to focus your job search. Types of employers include multi-national firms (such as Accenture and McKinsey & Company), small "boutique" firms, corporations, non-profit organizations, and government institutions. Each employer has different advantages and disadvantages.

6. Familiarize yourself with the consulting job hunt process. For instance, the interview stage for a consulting position includes personality and resume questions, communication questions and business case questions. You may even be asked to make a presentation.

7. If you are considering starting your own firm. If you have an aptitude for entrepreneurship, preliminary steps to starting a consulting business include conducting market research, deciding whether to incorporate, and setting up your office. You will also need to price your services (and decide whether to charge hourly, daily, per project or on retainer), and attract clients through networking, advertising, or publicity.

Finally, while it is not an absolute necessity, you may want to pursue a professional designation as a certified management consultant to take your career to the next level.

Management consulting is a very lucrative, recession-proof field. In fact, some specialized consulting fields are experiencing a whopping increase of revenue during the current slow economy. So get ready to plunge into this exciting and highly rewarding profession. Just make sure to do your homework properly to ensure success.[]

Jennie S. Bev is a San Francisco Bay Area professional writer and instructional designer. She is the author of the highly praised and 2003 EPPIE award nominee Guide to Become a Management Consultant published by FabJob.com, Inc. She is also the author of Write Industry Reports: Work at Home and Start Earning $5,000 in Royalties per Month. She can be contacted via http://www.WritingGigs.com.

Affiliate programs guide.Joel De Gan

How to pick the best possible affiliate program for your type of website.
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. ----------------------------------------begin article-------------------------------------------- Affiliate programs guide. Joel De Gan, 2003

PICK THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM.

Picking the right affiiliate program for your web site is essential if you want to generate any revenue from it. There are a wide assortment of affiliate programs to choose from and weeding through ones is tedious work which requires filling out a lot of forms and reviewing the pro's and con's of each program and if it would be of value to you and your visitors.

THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM HAS TO MATCH YOUR SITE.

That sentence sums it all up for me. If you are running a website doing movie reviews and your affiliate program banners are advertising baby products or health care you seriously need to rethink changing your affiliate program to one which better suits your target audience. For our example here, the movie review site, you might be better off with a movie-poster ad campaign, or perhaps even DVD's. Try to stick as close to your subject matter as possible.

READ THE FINE PRINT.

Some lesser know affiliate programs can discontinue your affiliation for no reason at any time. Some bind you into only displaying their advertising and disallow you to place them in rotation with other programs. Know what you are getting yourself into and what you are signing away.

WOULD YOU PURCHASE THE PRODUCTS YOU ARE ADVERTISING?

This question I have often found myself asking when choosing which advertising to place. I have found that I look for affiliations with sites I already use or feel is something I would like to see. This gives you a better spin when shifting users offsite to your advertisers site. You can recommend products or services which you have personal experience with, thus gaining confidence from your website users.

MONITOR YOUR PROGRAM.

Watch your affiliate program closely, try to check it once a day to see if they have added anything new. I have found that just by simply changing a banner ad the clicks have doubled for a period of several days. Your users notice things that are new at your site. They gloss over things which they have seen many times and fail to notice them. Keeping fresh content keeps people coming back.

If your advertiser does not have regular content changes or new banner advertisments, email them and ask for fresh content.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CHANGE PROGRAMS.

If your affiliate program is not making you money, start looking for one that might. Select several and roate them through over a period of several weeks and compare which ones do the best, select the top two or three and rotate through them until you find the right program for your site.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO "REMEMBER" YOUR ADVERTISER.

If you send out a mailing list, make sure that you include a link to your advertiser, if it is an HTML formatted mail then use banners at the top and the bottom. mention them at once "in text" on each page, even if it just a small "thank you" at the footer, this increases user familiarity with the product.

SOME IDEAS FOR PROMOTION.

If you have long articles on your site, have a mid-section break, creates "Fun facts" section in a quotebox and right below or to the side have a "This fun fact brought to you by ..." This increases user interactivity with the product and begins the association process. With each mailing you do, invite your users to check back on your site for a "special promotional offer" which includes a link to your advertiser to one of their latest promotions.

====================================================== Joel De Gan is a well know open source programmer and has run many websites He has a reviewed list of affiliate programs at his website http://listbid.com/affil/ which has user contributed comments and ratings for affiliate programs. ======================================================

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Joel De Gan is a prolific opensource programmer who has worked on a multitude of projects and is highly interested in search engine placement.