Career Growth & Leadership
The Grass is Always Greener (From One Side or the Other): The Realities of Consulting in Research Administration
This article is a follow-up to a previous article published in June 2024. The topic was later presented at the 2024 SRAI Annual Meeting. Based on new perspectives from that conference, it seems that the significance of private consulting has far from waned, but the future of research administration is still ripe with possibility.
I wrote an article for the Catalyst in June 2024 with the above title, then hosted a panel at the 2024 SRAI Annual Meeting in Chicago later that year under the same moniker. The original article asserted that the transition of the profession to one that can be effectively accomplished remotely created a surge of interest in Research Administration (RA) consulting. which was previously known for requiring extensive travel but changed alongside the rest of the field. However, I also posited that the industry overestimated the desire of clients to utilize consultants and thus the hiring booms at the larger firms turned into freezes and layoffs due to the glut of candidates in the market. The panel looked to build on these ideas, and consisted of myself and three other members, all of whom had been in the profession for more than 20 years, including consulting experience in a variety of lengths and mechanisms. The session was well attended, and the attendees were very interactive, leading to interesting insights.
It was readily apparent that there is still significant interest from research administrators to get into the consulting field. There were questions about what led the panelists to consulting, and what specific benefits were sought. The panelists all had different answers, but the concept of benefits led to a discussion of working for a consulting firm as opposed to striking out on your own. It was generally agreed among the panelists that going to work for a large consulting company is the fastest, easiest, and most dependable way to get benefits similar to those of institutions of higher education or other large organizations where research administrators are traditionally found. But there was also agreement that the larger firms had slowed or even frozen their hiring of consultants so being able to secure such a position is currently a low-percentage opportunity.
The panelists agreed that if individuals strike out on their own, then they really need to have an existing client group they can tap into because that is the most challenging aspect to establishing yourself as a full-time independent consultant. The profession, as a whole, is suffering from a lack of bodies and that is reflected in the large number of open positions advertised on listservs that used to focus on RA issues but now serve as de facto job boards. This leads many to believe that interim staffing is currently the most desirable service that can be offered to clients, leading to the ability to establish consulting credentials which can then lead to other work. However, the panelists were dubious about the willingness of clients to utilize consultants for such a purpose, and those who do prefer the larger established firms. While an independent consultant would be cheaper than utilizing a firm, institutions have shown a preference to work with larger firms in such situations, while preferring to deal with individuals as employees or contractors subject to their pay policies, etc.
After all of these views were shared by the panelists, the truly interesting conclusion is that the questions from the audience clearly indicated they were still interested in private consulting. There were questions about liability and forming an LLC compared to other corporate mechanisms, tax implications, and processes you would need to have in place to hire employees. Despite the somewhat pessimistic tone of the panel, many in the crowd were still very interested in striking out on their own. Clearly, the allure of becoming an RA consultant still has a significant pull on those with institutional positions, and working independently rather than for a firm is still the goal for many. Unfortunately, this continues to strain the already less than adequate pool of applicants for open positions as research administrators look to move out of the traditional roles.
I do not believe the profession can sustain this current model of employment. Institutions will always need research administrators while consulting firms will not. While some feel the desperate need for new people in the profession, the value of providing individuals with prior training will force institutions to utilize more consultants. However, institutions have demonstrated that they desire a ROI for the time and effort required to train someone to do a job. By having consultants come in and do something in the short run, the institution will be right back in the same position when the consultants leave. One thing is certain, RA consulting has been changed forever due to the pandemic, but its current nature is far from settled.
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