One of the most searched terms in the consulting industry is ‘management consulting certificates’. We thought we would clear this one up.
Broadly speaking, there is no such thing. Where accounting has its ACA (Associated Chartered Accountant), law has the GDL (Graduate Diploma in Law) and LPC (Legal Practice Course) and other financial services have the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) etc, consulting has nothing.
Certificates are useful and this is a downside of consulting. In certain countries these are gold dust. In the UK, ACAs may not have the same clout they once did, but they remain incredibly useful.
If you are really desperate for a certificate, you do have some options. Starting with the Big 4 consulting firms. You can start off in a financial services division and move over to consulting. For example, Deloitte’s “Deal Advisory” team is of similar prestige to Strategy and Operations, its management consulting group. You could get your CFA in Deal Advisory before moving across.
FTI is the only pure consulting firm with an interest in certification. It is genuinely unique. Analysts on their Financial and Economics Consulting programme almost all attain ACA or CFA qualifications.
Be careful of ‘tax consulting’, though. Tax consulting does offer a qualification and you can do it at the Big 4 or FTI. It is sometimes called tax advisory. However, tax consulting isn’t really considered consulting in the same way as other consulting branches. You can obtain a CTA (Chartered Tax Advisor), but this isn’t worth nearly so much.
This has been a shorter article to cover a fairly concise topic. If you want to hear more about other facets of consulting then
