In order to become an internal consultant, you can either change the way you are conducting your current job role, or you can apply for a consulting position where you are working as an employee for one company rather than an external consultant for numerous clients or companies.
The first way to become an internal consultant is to evaluate your current role in the company. Once you have evaluated what you do, determine in which ways you can consult or offer advice on how to make the business process more efficient and effective — especially in your specific department or area. When you start to consult on ways to make your department more effective and efficient and helping to implement these suggestions, then you have become an internal consultant.
As your department head, manager or supervisor sees how helpful your consulting role is for your department, you may even be able to spread your advice to other areas of the company. In other words, one way to become an internal consultant is to indirectly do it until you can convince your manager or supervisor that it is a needed, full time position.
You can become an internal consultant by applying for an open position available in your company. Since you have been working for the company, you have an advantage over outside candidates. You already know how the business works and operates. Because you are one of the employees conducting the day-to-day activities, you already know what is working and what is not. You probably even have ideas on how to make changes to the way things are done, or tweak the things that are working well.
Another way to become an internal consultant is to apply to work for a company. Typically, when someone wants to become an internal consultant and they are entering the company from the outside, they have experience working as an external consultant. Companies that are hiring from the external work environment also like to see that the consultant has experience working with their particular industry or field of business.
In order to become an internal consultant, most companies require that you have a college degree. Degrees such as business, communication and psychology are typical degrees. If you become an internal consultant for a particular industry, the company may require you to have a degree in its field or industry.