It's project work with different clients. Each project lasts for 3 to 9 months and you are involved in many stages, from defining requirements and expectations at the beginning, to developing and possibly deploying a solution, to presenting the work done to stakeholders at the client's. After a project is done you either negotiate an extension of the project or leave maintenance to the client and leave to start a new thing.

So there is much more focus on soft skills, such as leaving a good impression, properly selling your work so that the client is happy, securing future collaborations with them, and so on. And, on the flip side, hard technical skills are not that important: as long as you can produce something that works in a reasonable time and sell it well you will be fine.

Any idea what credentials or background you need to become such an IT consultant?

Requirements aren't very specific since there is a relatively heavy focus on communication and soft skills, and since consulting companies hire lots of fresh graduates the bar for juniors is not so high. It's important to have wide range of interests and shallow knowledge since that increases the number of clients you can be sold to. You are (implicitly) expected to work longer hours than usual and grow quickly though, as I said earlier the good ones can earn 90k per year within five years of graduation.