I don't know about "the job itself doesn't require specific skills," I think it's more that the skills are "soft" and thus much harder to measure. A consultant'

I don't know about "the job itself doesn't require specific skills," I think it's more that the skills are "soft" and thus much harder to measure. A consultant's job often involves listening to a lot of people and collecting a lot of data and then synthesizing all of that into actionable recommendations... but then again, consultants are often hired just to confirm whatever a manager already believes, so their perceived utility isn't actually proportional to their ability. Yeah, these are tough problems.