What does an IT consultant do?

An IT consultant handles anything from computer repairs to management and maintenance of large networks. IT consultants can generally be categorized into three specialties:

• Project management
• Maintenance and repair
• Security

However, an independent IT consultant can have numerous other niche specialties.

IT project management consultant

Business owners and managers look to project management IT consultants to provide answers and solutions for their problems. Your potential client has an idea, but he or she doesn’t know how much it will cost or what it would involve. Your job is to fill in the blanks and possibly manage the operation. You might need to provide a cost analysis and a project scope with details on your IT solutions. You could also be tasked with managing the team and tracking benchmarks once the project is underway.

Maintenance and repair consultant

A maintenance and repair IT consultant provides support for hardware or software issues on individual machines or for larger networks. Smaller and mid-level companies often have consultants on retainer for this type of work, so they can respond quickly to problems that disrupt normal business operations.

IT security consultant

IT security consultants, also called cybersecurity consultants, are becoming increasingly important as cyberattacks target all types of businesses and municipal, state, and federal government organizations. These consultants often work on the front lines of cybersecurity and provide advice and solutions for companies to protect their digital assets. You could be asked to build firewalls, install virus protection, and make sure networks are safe from hacking attempts. If a data breach does occur, you could be asked to create and execute a response and recovery strategy.