As with any profession, the better you are at it, the better you will get remunerated.

The people involved are unique and they need the skillset to distinguish a historical mind set from the facts of the case,be an outside pair of eyes and not get clouded by historical perspective.

A key part of the role is to pass on these skills and develop people on the ground. These key skills require experience and honing and if one considers the top end of the consulting spectrum as strategy, then perhaps these people will get remunerated as well as their investment banking cousins.

There will also be phases when professions go through a period of talent loss due to being in unfavorable parts of the economic cycle, big relocations and redeployments say in governmental agencies to aid regional development or cheaper labour comes along. The consulting profession is not alone in this aspect.

However, what is now unique to the profession is that clients are now more experienced and wary than they were in the past, they themselves having worked in the consulting industries or in senior banking/professional roles earlier in their careers.

This is now a mature market where few companies are buying consultancy services for the first time.

In fact the greatest challenge to the consultant is the client's in-house team of managers who are more than ready to solve problems without seeking outside advice!

The talent management and HR departments of these firms also ensures that there is a bright and steady mix of entrepreneurial hires ensuring a high level of in-house talent.

Most consultancies now especially in these economic times are also trying to manage their cost base carefully. Having high utilisation rates,lower overheads,working more productively, working from home are all measures that are being undertaken.Pay has to be considered very carefully.

A decade ago, people would take for granted that they would be "on the road" or working very long hours. Nowadays, worklife balance means that recruits are more exacting in what they are prepared to do and perhaps clients do now pay more than their consulting cousins, having learnt from the overspending and excesses of the past!