{"id":6809,"date":"2016-12-20T19:43:59","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T19:43:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiacademstg.wpengine.com\/20000academy\/?p=6809"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:02:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:02:25","slug":"how-to-become-an-itil-consultant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2016\/12\/20\/how-to-become-an-itil-consultant\/","title":{"rendered":"How to become an ITIL consultant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being a consultant sounds quite fancy, doesn\u2019t it? I have to admit, it does, but on the other side \u2013 I have to tell you that real life looks much different. <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-itil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL<\/a> covers a wide area in the life of an IT service, and so do the consultant\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n<p>A career change is mostly positive (although people tend to reject changes), but becoming an ITIL consultant puts many challenges in front of you. Let\u2019s see what they are.<\/p>\n<h2>What do the consultants do?<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to be precise \u2013 every customer is different, and every implementation has its own issues and needs. But, think about it \u2013 if someone needs a consultant, it\u2019s because they are stuck somewhere in their implementation and someone more experienced is needed. So, basically, as a consultant you should be a \u201csafe harbor\u201d for your customer, which they will turn to once they need knowledge and experience.<\/p>\n<p>Besides your customer needing your expertise, they need you to do the job they can\u2019t do, because they don\u2019t have enough resources or because of some other reason.<br \/>\n<div id=\"middle-banner\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><script>loadMiddleBanner();<\/script><br \/>\n<div id=\"side-banner-trigger\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2>ITIL consultant \u2013 What do you need?<\/h2>\n<p>Usually, during breaks at the trainings I do, attendees have many questions regarding careers in ITSM (IT Service Management). I have to admit, quite often wishes are greater than possibilities. We argue about prerequisites, customers (their needs, motivations, and specifics), market, competition, prices, prosperity in an ITSM career\u2026 Basically, these are all questions an ITIL consultant copes with. So will you, if you are considering this career step.<\/p>\n<p>Many ITIL consultants I\u2019ve met have the following characteristics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Education<\/strong> \u2013 There is no formal education required to be consultant (ITIL or any other). But, ITIL provides an excellent education path (see the article\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/knowledgebase\/itil-certification-path-list-of-all-available-itil-trainings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL Certification Path \u2013 list of all available ITIL trainings, exams and certificates<\/a>\u00a0to find out more). If you want to show your competence, the ITIL Expert certificate is your target. Namely, the Foundation level is quite common in the ITSM world, but that\u2019s a level that won\u2019t give you the ability to boast about your competence and knowledge, and most probably, many employees of your client will have that certificate.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Experience<\/strong> \u2013 Your clients will not hire you for more basic things. What they do is support business with IT services. So, this implies that you need to have experience in ITSM as well as in business, and that you are able to connect these two worlds (that will be the majority of your engagements, actually).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subject matter knowledge<\/strong> \u2013 Now, put the previous two bullets together and you get \u2013 expertise. Meaning, you are well educated (theory) and you have vast experience in application of that knowledge in the real world (praxis). That\u2019s what makes you \u2013 an expert. That\u2019s what clients like when they hire a consultant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Beyond tangible<\/h2>\n<p>Being an expert in ITIL and having vast experience is an excellent starting point for a consultancy business. But, here is the bad news \u2013 it\u2019s not enough. There are many other characteristics an ITIL consultant (but that could be applied to consultancy in general) needs to possess. Here are the most important ones:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Project Management skills<\/strong> \u2013 Quite often your job, as a consultant, is <a href=\"https:\/\/info.staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/free-download\/itil-implementation-diagram\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">implementation<\/a>. That\u2019s where project management steps in, and the client takes project management skills as a default capability of an ITSM or ITIL consultant.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Communication skills<\/strong> \u2013 In addition to needing to explain complex issues in an easy-to-understand way, you will also need to communicate with various kinds of people in the client\u2019s organization (from top management down to network admins), and you need to be an excellent listener.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analytical\/Problem solver<\/strong> \u2013 Analytics is something consultants do on a daily basis. It requires a specific approach to the problems that need to be resolved, along with patience and experience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Documentation<\/strong> \u2013 You will need\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/itil-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL processes\/functions documentation<\/a>\u00a0for the implementation, in order to speed up your work and avoid \u201creinventing the wheel\u201d for every new customer. Also, you will need templates for offers, <a href=\"https:\/\/info.staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/free-download\/project-proposal-for-itil-implementation-ms-powerpoint\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">project proposals<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/info.staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/free-download\/project-plan-for-itil-implementation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">project plans<\/a>, management presentations, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tools<\/strong> \u2013 You will need some tool to record all your customer details (e.g., CRM) as well as the status of your relationship with them, contacts, projects you do for them, etc. Using a GAP analysis tool before proposing a to-do list is also a good idea.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This list could go on, but what\u2019s important is that you optimize your activities and don\u2019t recreate from scratch documents and information that can be reused for other clients. Of course, any documentation you use will need to be adapted to the client\u2019s organization.<\/p>\n<h2>What now?<\/h2>\n<p>As with everything in life, consultancy gives you great opportunities (and happy moments, I would say), but it puts a lot of responsibility and risks on your shoulders. Sometimes it\u2019s not easy to live with that, but that depends a lot on your personality and (\u201csoft\u201d) skills. What I have experienced is that many people try consultancy and quit after a few months. But, I also have my own experience, which says that consultancy gives you the opportunity to live from your knowledge and experience, as well as to increase your expertise, due to the fact that you work with many different customers and you are facing many new challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Based on that, you have a great chance to extend your knowledge, apply it where it\u2019s appreciated (i.e., at your clients), and enjoy looking at a satisfied client\u2019s face once you help them resolve their problems and achieve their results. The reward? A paid bill (not a small one, usually) and your own satisfaction. What more could you wish for?<\/p>\n<p><em>To implement ISO 20000 easily and efficiently, use our<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ISO 20000 Documentation Toolkit<\/a> <em>that provides step-by-step guidance for full ISO 20000 compliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being a consultant sounds quite fancy, doesn\u2019t it? I have to admit, it does, but on the other side \u2013 I have to tell you that real life looks much different. ITIL covers a wide area in the life of an IT service, and so do the consultant\u2019s activities. A career change is mostly positive &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[562,344,522],"class_list":["post-6809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-consultant","tag-itil","tag-skills"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18714,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6809\/revisions\/18714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}