Management Analysts and Consultants

Management analysts and consultants generally divide their time between their own offices and the client's office or production facility. They can spend a great deal of time on the road. Many consultants work more than 40 hours per week. The nature of consulting projects—working on location with a single client toward a specific goal—allows these professionals to totally immerse themselves in their work. They sometimes work 14- to 16-hour days, and six- or seven-day workweeks can be fairly common.

Self-employed consultants may enjoy the luxury of setting their own hours and doing a great deal of their work at home; the trade-off is sacrificing the benefits provided by the large firms. Their livelihood depends on the additional responsibility of maintaining and expanding their clientele on their own.

Although those in this career usually avoid much of the potential tedium of working for one company all day, every day, they face many pressures resulting from deadlines and client expectations. Because the clients are generally paying generous fees, they want to see dramatic results, and the management analyst can feel the weight of this.

This career often ranks high on "best job" lists. For example, in 2025, U.S. News ranked the career of management consultant as the 18th-best occupation. Visit https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings/the-100-best-jobs to learn more about a career as a consultant and read the complete list.