Consulting Analyst

Know a number of folks who work as analysts at firms like CBRE / JLL / Cushman, and I've heard that depending on which analytics group you're in, your title might be "Financial Consultant" or "Consulting Analyst" rather than the more traditional "Financial Analyst". Reason being that some of these firms are building out their own professional analytics groups with folks who focus more on the back end research and analysis. Since clients are demanding more from CRE service firms, the old school deal sourcing and client relationship brokers (albeit who know a ton about the markets) need a sophisticated team behind them doing the leg work full time. So rather than a "Financial Analyst", which connotes a more junior level role who will eventually leave or move up to become a broker, a "Consulting Analyst" indicates a higher level professional (or that's the hope it seems) whose sole focus is financial and market analysis and research, along with some other report writing, rather than doing any cold-calling.

But then there is also the chance that they just use the term "consultant" to make it seem more prestigious. Or that they're just a 1099 contractor working on analytics assignments for the firm as a "consultant".