Is numerical data analysis a relevant business consulting skill?

Question

I have a PhD in physics and a lot of my current academic work involves "number crunching" - statistics, modelling, regression, etc.

Is that a relevant skill for a business consultant that I should strongly emphasize in my application?

On the one hand, it seems quite useful to me that when you receive a load of numerical data from your client, you are able to quickly process and draw meaningful conclusions from it on your own.

On the other hand, that might be an analyst's job and stressing my expertise on that field only shows the recruiter that I am applying for the wrong role?

Your comments on that matter would be extremely helpful to me.

Answer 1

It is a very relevant skill and would emphasize you ability to gain insights from numbers and to use different methodologies to gain those insights (multivariate analysis, montecarlo simulation, forecasting methodologies, etc). However what is also important is to highlight the fact that you will be able to use standard tools (xls, VBA, SQL, tableau, etc) to do the things above mentioned vs. using tools that are not widespread in a business environment.

Hope it helps,

Andrea

Answer 2

Hi,

Several points:

It's a relevant skill for any position
Fram it a bit differently. Either "Problem Solving" or something related to digital, eg Data Science, Business Intelligence, Big Data
Make sure you have a mix of technical and soft skills

Best

Answer 3

Thank you both for your comments, they were very helpful! They put me in the right track of thinking and I have a much better idea now on how to embed/frame these skills in my CV/cover letter.