03/10/2026
5 things I wish I knew before becoming an HR consultant💻☕️👩🏻💻🗂️
⭐️1. You won’t always agree with the client (and that’s part of the job)
- Sometimes a client wants to dismiss someone, discipline them or handle something in a way you wouldn’t necessarily recommend. Your job is to explain the risks, give them their options and let them make an informed business decision.
⭐️2. The HR work is only half the job.
- When you run an HR consultancy, you’re also in sales, marketing, finance, networking, recruitment, operations and customer service. I probably spend far less of my week actually doing HR than I imagined when I started.
⭐️3. You can know employment law and still not immediately know the answer.
- I used to think being a good consultant meant having the answer instantly. It doesn’t. Employment law changes, situations are rarely black and white, and sometimes the most professional answer is, “Let me check that properly and come back to you.”
⭐️4. You become much more involved in your clients’ businesses than you expect.
- You’re not just the person who writes their contracts. You hear about their plans to grow, difficult employees, challenges with managers, finances and sometimes things they haven’t really spoken to anyone else about. Particularly with small businesses, you become a trusted sounding board for the owner.
⭐️5. Not all my clients will be local.
- When I started, I genuinely thought most of my clients would be based in Angus. And while a good number are now, because I’ve built relationships locally, I’ve been surprised by how much business has come from further afield. You don’t necessarily need to be on someone’s doorstep to become their trusted HR person.
