George Clooney plays a corporate downsizer for hire in the 2009 film Up the Air, but most consultants do positive work.

Choosing a job title is serious business nowadays. If you’ve ever attended a Meetup group or built a LinkedIn profile, you know what I mean. Almost every day we inevitably encounter some variation of “So, what do you do?” The answer had better be truthful, easy to grasp, and (most importantly) make you proud to say it.

“Consultant”—the title on my business card—is wonderfully malleable. Depending on who’s talking, it can mean just about anything. Let’s examine just what consulting entails across the career spectrum, and why it’s a fast growing profession.

My first impression of this nether word “consultant” came years ago as a small-town reporter. Local activists would rail against “imported consultants” who charged high fees to advise officials of cities they didn’t live in. Therefore—the logic went—they had no real investment in whether their advice was taken or not. Hardly a term of endearment.

Other definitions of consultant also tilt negative, from the one who advises a company about how many employees to fire in order to keep up profit margins, to the consultant who actually comes in and fires them (a la George Clooney’s character from Up in the Air). UrbanDictionary is kind enough to provide an extensive list of negative connotations, such as “Someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then walks off with it.” Or my personal favorite: “A man who knows 500 different ways to make love, but doesn’t know any women.”

Given those gloomy descriptions, why call yourself a consultant at all? Because the title conveys two qualities: 1) Being an expert in a given field; 2) Availability to work on a given project. Beyond that, every industry has its own breed of consultants with their own specialties, from wedding consultants to IT consultants to conflict-resolution consultants. You can’t escape us—we’re in every crevice of capitalism, even nonprofits.

In my industry—media and communications consulting—we not only “consult.” We do stuff beyond strategy and recommendations. Produce documents. Research case studies. Deliver presentations. Write video scripts for web ads, or even shoot them too. Typically clients want more than our advice. Though we happily dole that out as well.

 “Consultant” may not be the most glamorous title, but on the flip side too much cuteness isn’t cute—even in an industry that thrives on creativity. I cringe when I see peers calling themselves a “new media ninja” or a “digital rock star.” Would you hire a CPA who went by “financial services ninja”? Or a lawyer with “courtroom rock star?” on his business card? Enough said.

I suppose I could call myself a freelancer, contractor, small business owner or self-employed, and all of those definitions are technically correct—but each word brings to mind a different image. Such as: freelancer (journalist barely scraping by?), contractor (construction foreman rocking a hard hat?), small business owner (corner store selling deli sandwiches?), self-employed (read: unemployed?). At least those are the images they conjure for me. No doubt I’ve seen too many movies, but we all have. When I identify myself as a consultant, potential clients instantly know what I do.

No one grows up dreaming of consulting—well, at least most of us. More likely we stumble our way to the title or decide to work for ourselves after clocking in years in related fields. Others get laid off unexpectedly, in which case consulting on small projects to pay bills is more appealing than bemoaning the dreaded U-word.

I worked traditional jobs in journalism and communication for the better part of a decade before deciding to go it on my own. The benefits of consulting are many: Often we can set our own hours, work at home, multi-task on a mix of projects at once, get potential repeat business and referrals, and if a particular client doesn’t work out, at least we didn’t make a long-term commitment.

I was initially surprised at how many companies are willing to pay consultants competitive rates to work for brief stretches, be it months, weeks or even days. Then I realized the catch: No health insurance, no paid vacations and no severance packages.

Most consultants offer a free consultation initially (including BCJstudios). If I can’t help or it’s not a good fit, I can point you in the right direction.

In the end, I offer my own definition of consultant: “The one you call for the job you either can’t do by yourself, don’t want to do by yourself or don’t have the time to do by yourself.”

Or when you just want that free consultation.