A consultant (from Latin: consultare "to discuss") is a professional who provides professional or

expert advice[1] in a particular area such as security

(electronic or physical),management, accountancy, law, human resources, marketing (and public
relations), finance, engineering, science or any of many other specialized fields.
A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of
the subject matter.[2] The role of consultant outside the medical sphere (where the term is used
specifically for a grade of doctor) can fall under one of two general categories:

Internal consultant - someone who operates within an organization but is available to

be consulted on areas of specialism by other departments or individuals (acting as clients);
or

External consultant - someone who is employed externally (either by a firm or some

other agency) whose expertise is provided on a temporary basis, usually for a fee. As such
this type of consultant generally engages with multiple and changing clients.

The overall impact of a consultant is that clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than
would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the
outside consultant as desired.
The range of areas of expertise covered by the term consultant is extremely wide. One of the
more general attributions is as a Management Consultant but this is not an exclusive term.
Consulting and the means by which the (external) consultant is engaged vary according to
industry and local practice. However the principal difference between aconsultant and a temp is
generally one of direction. A consultant is engaged to fulfill a brief in terms of helping to find
solutions to specific issues but the ways in which that is to be done generally falls to the
consultant to decide, within constraints such as budget and resources agreed with the client. (A
temp on the other hand is normally fulfilling a role that usually exists within the organization and
is helping to bridge a gap caused by staffing shortages for whatever reason. They fall under the
direction of the normal management structure of the organization.)
There is however a hybrid form where a consultant may be hired as an Interim Manager or
Executive, bringing a combination of specialist expertise to bear on a role that is temporarily
vacant (usually at a senior level).
Some consultants are employed indirectly by the client via a consultancy staffing company, a
company that provides consultants on an agency basis. (The staffing company itself does not
usually have consulting expertise but works rather like an employment agency.) This form of
working is particularly common in the ICT sector. Such consultants are often called contractors
since they are usually providing technical services (such as programming or systems analysis)

that could be performed in-house were it not easier for the employer to operate a flexible system
of only hiring such technologists at times of peak workload rather than permanently.