This morning, I attended a Q&A on the current state of the job market for consultants, hosted by Umbrex (a community for ex-MBB-turned-solo consultants).

The speaker was Chad Oakley, CEO of Charles Aris - a top retained search firm specialized in placing consultants in senior roles in corporate & PE firms.

I’ve met with Chad a couple times throughout my own career journey, and there are few people as close as he is to the pulse of the consulting industry.

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Given this was an Umbrex talk, most of the questions were picking his brain about tips for solo consultants in the current macro-environment.

Thought I’d share some paraphrased highlights:

On tariff / trade-war impacts

• Big-firm consulting trends were very healthy for Q1, high staff utilization reported
• Q1 momentum shielded firms through some of the macro US-led tariff impacts, but yes many new projects have been halted or abandoned
• Demand for supply-chain consultants has skyrocketed, as you'd expect

Corporate consulting opportunities

• There has been an uptick in corporate appetite for independent consultants and interim role vs. expensive full-time executive hires, but generalists won’t cut through the noise
  • Action: Chad suggests being crystal clear on the 2 types of projects you’d be confident to jump in and tackle at a moment’s notice (Can you name yours?)

PE consulting opportunities

PE firms are always keeping tabs on independent expertise they could tap for advising or short-term engagements for their portfolio companies, but again, your expertise needs to be very specific

• Action: Make yourself aware of the top PE firms that invest in your vertical, then get creative (aka network your way to a warm intro with an operating partner)
• Umbrex has a public resource on PE firm profiles

Government-sector consultants

If you’re a former government employee or consultant looking to shift into corporate work, you will have critical eyes on your pace

• Action: When speaking to your experience, make sure you emphasize your proven speed-to-results, sharing quantitative wins under aggressive timelines

On AI

Material impact of AI adoption on corporate business results is still several quarters away

• Implication: still plenty of space to help companies with adopting AI into their operations/strategy

AI is starting to produce output comparable to junior consultants — jury is out on how that shift challenges the ‘apprentice model’ of large consulting firms over the long term

• Implication: AI tools are narrowing the value delta between you (a soloist) and the larger firms (e.g. deep research, asset creation, etc.)

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My overall takeaway: the sky is not falling, but priorities are shifting.

Still, demand will always favor well-articulated, specialized expertise.

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💡

-Wes