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Love My Job Most people who work for consulting firms talk about how intellectually stimulating their work is. “The work is just phenomenal,” one insider says. They enjoy the challenges of going into new settings and facing some of the most difficult issues business leaders have to deal with.

If you graduated from college 10 years ago and haven’t advanced your technical skills in that time, it might be time to brush up. One recruiter says gaining certifications in tech areas and taking internships at hot tech companies are good options for future IT consultants who want to stay in the know.

Some insiders complain that after four years of hardcore computer programming they are disappointed by the lack of depth of some engagements. Other insiders are happy to see a variety of businesses and be exposed to a range of technologies.

Undergraduates Undergraduates generally join consulting firms as analysts, although titles vary. Undergrads joining large consulting firms or technology products companies with consulting practices that employ more than 100 people should be prepared to do some grunt work. Early consulting assignments can be a absurd mixture of coding and pulling together PowerPoint presentations—or “decks,” in consulting lingo.

For midcareer hires, compensation is considerably harder to predict. Computerworld’s 2007 salary survey puts the range of total compensation for IT specialists in the consulting industry between $83,000 and $123,000. Why such a huge range?

Insiders warn that getting the best salary for IT consulting is often about finding the right fit for your skill set. A person with a lot of experience working with Oracle’s products but less business-side experience may be a great fit for Oracle, a so-so fit for an IT firm that does systems integration, and a lousy fit for IT  [ Read More ]

Industry insiders expect that IT consulting compensation will continue to grow. The steady decline of computer science and electrical engineering majors—a 20 percent drop in 2008—is increasing the demand for individuals with those skills.