Question: How can people be consultants if they're straight out of uni? By (my) definition, a consultant is an expert I can go to for advice on a problem, based on their broad experience in dealing with similar problems in a variety of places/circumstances. Having done it once doesn't make you an expert, and anyway what worked there may not work in the next situation.At a tender age, you're also unlikely to have any real life experience of operating at higher levels in business, which is where consulting value is supposed to be aimed. As for credibility ... well.So if you see a 23, 24, 25 year old 'consultant', should you laugh, cry, scream, or run for the hills?

You don't hire the 23 year old individual, you hire the firm. The 23 year old will as likely as not be only one member of a team, working with more experienced members, and is unlikely to be the main source of the insights the team will produce.However the 23 year old will still have a significant input and it is for this reason that consulting firms select very able people.

I think a lot of MC firms are training power point monkeys on their clients' time...

Hi CfB, You have a solid point. You are, however, only speaking for the perpective of firms, and by the looks of it, big ones. What about the small firm or individual MCs? There are a few out there who can't possibly have the kind of expertise, let alone experience, I'd expect from a consultant. Yet they are there, they get hired (!) and they charge the big bucks.