Management consultant
Advise organisations on strategy, operations and transformation across industries.
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Management and Organisation Analysts (2247) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $2308 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Management Consultant (224711), the closest official match for management consultant, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 64,900
- Future demand
- Very strong
- Work full-time
- 79%
- Average full-time hours
- 43 a week
- Women
- 41%
- Median age
- 42
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 37.4% |
| VIC | 29.9% |
| QLD | 14.5% |
| WA | 7.7% |
| SA | 4.7% |
| TAS | 1.1% |
| ACT | 4.4% |
| NT | 0.3% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 33.9% |
| Bachelor degree | 42.7% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 8.1% |
| Certificate I-IV | 4.2% |
| Year 12 | 7% |
| Below Year 12 | 1.9% |
What a management consultant actually does
Management consultants work in case teams on a defined client project, usually somewhere between four and sixteen weeks long. A typical day involves interviewing client staff, pulling and analysing their data, building slide decks, and meeting with the project manager and partner to test the emerging answer. Mornings often run case-team workstreams and afternoons run client steering or working sessions. At a strategy firm, juniors spend most of the day in Excel and slides; senior consultants spend more time interviewing, framing, and presenting. Hours sit at 50-60 a week on average and stretch to 70+ in the final weeks before a major board paper or deal close. Most consultants are hybrid or on-site at the client for several days a week, which can include interstate or international travel.
Typical tasks
- Diagnose business problems with structured frameworks.
- Build quantitative and qualitative analyses.
- Present recommendations to executive sponsors.
Skills you'll use
- Structured problem-solving and hypothesis-driven analysis
- Financial modelling and forecasting in Excel
- Slide-writing for executive audiences (storyline, exhibits, talk track)
- Interviewing senior client staff to extract information
- Reading an industry quickly from public filings and ABS data
- Project planning under tight deadlines
- Pushing back diplomatically when a client's answer is wrong
How to become one
- 1Finish Year 12 with English plus Maths Advanced or Methods; strategy firms favour stronger maths
- 2Complete a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Economics, or a STEM degree (3-4 years); double-degrees in commerce/law or commerce/engineering are common
- 3Aim for strong distinction-level grades; the major strategy firms heavily screen on academic results plus extracurriculars
- 4Apply for a strategy graduate or summer-internship programme (most strategy firms recruit in penultimate year)
- 5Build the role over 2-4 years; many consultants later complete an MBA before stepping toward manager
Where you can work
- Global strategy consulting firms (MBB)
- Big-four management-consulting arms
- Boutique strategy and operations consultancies
- Internal strategy teams inside ASX-listed corporates
- Federal and state government strategy units
- Health, education and infrastructure advisory practices
Career progression
Typical stages and roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- Business analyst / consultant0-3 yearsTypical roles: Business analyst, Consultant, Senior consultant
- Manager / engagement manager4-7 yearsTypical roles: Manager, Engagement manager, Project leader
- Principal / associate partner8-12 yearsTypical roles: Principal, Associate partner, Director
- Partner12+ yearsTypical roles: Partner, Senior partner
Is this for you?
You might love this if
- You like solving a different problem every few months
- You can take ambiguous instructions and break them down into a plan
- You're comfortable being the most junior person in a senior meeting
- You can take direct feedback on your work and your communication style
- You're willing to travel and work long hours, especially in the first few years
This might not suit you if
- You want one team, one product and one mission for years
- You hate slide decks and frequent travel
- You can't tolerate weeks of long hours during peak deal moments
- You dislike client-facing work and prefer purely internal roles
Ways in
Uni and TAFE routes for management consultant. We only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
No direct TAFE pathway to this career.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.