Management Consultant

Aimee Brown

Leanne Dittmar understands first-hand how difficult job transitions can be-she deals with them on a daily basis. At global human capital management firm DBM, she is the NSW lead consultant and the national learning, development and quality manager, working closely with businesses and individuals to help them manage this often difficult time.

Dittmar says DBM works across the “whole employment cycle”, from helping people find a job to managing an exit interview or giving advice on effective company restructuring. A significant part of Dittmar’s work involves training DBM’s new consultants and ensuring the existing consultants are well-managed. In her training position, she has the opportunity to pass on skills she has learnt to those who are less experienced.

“I’m very much at the coalface as well. I have a client base myself. They are quite senior people,” she says. “We discuss their career and prepare their paperwork to help them get out into the market.”

She says the most satisfying part of her job is seeing the dividends of her advice pay off, in the form of someone getting the job they applied for or a company implementing more effective management structures. “It’s a unique thing to work closely with someone going through a career transition and seeing them come through it,” she says.

Although Dittmar says the job perfectly suits her personality, it wasn’t a field she planned to work in. She started a part-time role at an Adelaide clothing store as a 15-year-old. When she left high school, she continued to work in the retail industry at a management level until she was offered a position by a retail management company.

“I went in and rewrote all their [staff management] programs. It was perfect timing for me and I had a natural gift of the gab so I settled in quickly,” Dittmar says.

She then worked as an independent contractor for a number of years across Australia, before starting as a management consultant with DBM in Adelaide nine years ago. She says her job involves a significant amount of national and international travel and moved her to Sydney in January to take on the consultant role.

How to be a management consultant
You need to study commerce or business at university with a major or minor in management. Details: contact the Institute of Management Consultants, 1800 800 719 or management-consultants.com.au