What Employers Want From Consultants Across Europe: A Country-by-Country Skills Breakdown

If you're applying for consultant roles across Europe, the skills employers list most often are not the same from country to country. Looking at consultant job postings currently live on NewLuxJob, the mix of requested skills shifts noticeably depending on where the role is based.

Strategy is the most requested skill in most markets

Across the countries covered, strategy is the single most frequently mentioned skill in six of the eight. In Luxembourg, strategy appears in 61% of 96 consultant postings. France shows the highest share of any country studied: strategy in 63% of 242 postings. Spain lists strategy in 57% of 120 postings, and the Netherlands in 58% of 282 postings.

Germany's 593 consultant postings, the largest sample among the countries covered, mention strategy in 45% of listings. Belgium's 300 postings show strategy at 46%. Two markets are the exception: in Poland, strategy sits at 15% of 330 postings, and in Sweden, at 39% of 79 postings, both behind other skills.

SAP experience varies sharply by country

SAP shows the widest spread of any skill tracked. It appears in 49% of Poland's 330 consultant postings, the highest share recorded, and in 39% of Spain's 120 postings. Germany's postings mention SAP in 36% of cases.

At the other end, SAP is mentioned far less often in France (12% of 242 postings), the Netherlands (10% of 282 postings) and Sweden (13% of 79 postings). Belgium sits in between at 18% of 300 postings, and Luxembourg at 19% of its 96 postings.

Stakeholder management is the quiet second priority

Stakeholder management does not top the ranking anywhere except Sweden, but it shows up consistently across most countries. Sweden's 79 postings mention it in 56% of cases, more than any other skill tracked there. The Netherlands lists it in 52% of 282 postings, and Belgium in 45% of 300 postings, both close behind strategy in those two markets.

Spain mentions stakeholder management in 42% of its 120 postings, Luxembourg in 28% of 96, Poland in 22% of 330, and Germany in 31% of 593. France is the only country where stakeholder management does not appear among the skills tracked.

Project management, Excel and Agile fill out the picture

Project management, Excel and Agile are mentioned less often than strategy, SAP or stakeholder management, but still appear regularly. Luxembourg mentions project management in 17% of its 96 postings and Agile in 22%, its highest Agile share among the countries covered. Sweden's 79 postings mention Agile in 20% of cases and project management in 13%.

Excel is requested most in Luxembourg (23% of 96 postings) and Poland (21% of 330 postings), and least in Sweden (9% of 79 postings). France stands apart for two skills that don't appear in the other seven countries' top lists: Change Management, mentioned in 21% of its 242 postings, and PowerPoint, in 10%.

What this means if you're applying

The skill employers mention most is not the same across these eight markets. Job seekers targeting France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Spain will find strategy mentioned most often, while those looking in Poland will see SAP mentioned more than any other tracked skill. Sweden is the one market in this data where stakeholder management outranks strategy.

These figures reflect consultant job postings currently listed on NewLuxJob for each of the eight countries above, within the posting counts noted for each.