This is by a wide margin the most bourgeois shit I've heard on here apart from the constant cryptocurrency posts. "Make disgusting amounts of money by doing nothing instead of your actual job!"
What is negative about bourgeois?
How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
81–90 of 495 posts
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#82To this day, I'm still not quite clear about what a consultant actually does. I mean, beyond some vague idea ("goes to some company, talks with people, gives some recommendation"). I'd really love for someone to give some example or describe in a tangible way what the work of a consultant entails, what skills one typically needs and actually employs, what a typical gig looks like from beginning to end and so on. If a…
The two things I found (can be positive or negative), is that the consultant isn't tied to the familial expectation of employees at a company giving them more freedom, and they typically don't have much stake (except fees). This means that given the right consultant and party seeking services, the consultant may provide contrarian point of views that don't hold as much baggage.
Probably most important is the the company externalizes the decision so there is less internal responsibility.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#83A relevant side note: If you're getting into consulting, here are my suggestions for writing a good Statement of Work https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/
Your example reads like a programmer wrote it instead of a consultant.
- Would not expect to see a "such as" in statement of work in the locations you used them.
- Would not expect typos in statement of work.
- Consultant will push commits to source control.. I have other employees to code, I would pay an consultant to consult. Define strategy, architecture, coach. Not type code, you are way too expensive for that. Are you taking yourself serious?
What I read is a freelance software engineer.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#84One of the problems I've always had with patio11's advice is that the skills he brought to a job was something that could easily be measured, e.g. he mainly did sales funnel optimization so it was easy to see the before and after of the direct impact on the bottom line.
As somebody who is a skilled backend developer the value I provide is not as measurable. How can I justify charging a large weekly rate, when almost nobody can provide an objective number of the value I provide?
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was he a programmer?
He used to be but then he advised on enterprise software like SAP and Salesforce.
I know a guy like this. He ended up a VP at a big company like Salesforce a few years ago, got laid off spent a year and a half blowing money on drugs and women. Came back and fudged his LinkedIn / resume to make it look like he was a consultant those years (no months only years on his LinkedIn) some company is back to paying him 300-500k salary. It mostly seems to be about selling yourself hard and interviewing a lot until you find the sucker who is desperate enough to hire you. Another thing he did when he was originally getting hired was to start a MBA class in a small town and never finish it so that while he was applying he could say he was getting his MBA. He does SAP and such. Not a route a lot of people will want to take.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#86To this day, I'm still not quite clear about what a consultant actually does. I mean, beyond some vague idea ("goes to some company, talks with people, gives some recommendation"). I'd really love for someone to give some example or describe in a tangible way what the work of a consultant entails, what skills one typically needs and actually employs, what a typical gig looks like from beginning to end and so on. If a…
I think a consultant in this context means a programmer with valuable experience in a particular domain. In Patrick's case it's sales funnel optimization. I do a lot of fisheries data work. The work done is usually based around a deliverable, and that can be anything from a written recommendation to a turn-key, green field system. You're a contractor with some specialized experience that somebody values more highly than software development alone.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's lots of useful things to learn from the article, though I do agree that this: > A necessary collorary to this: the principals of a technical consultancy do very well for themselves. I don't know if that is a secret but it certainly isn't well appreciated: nobody says Occupy Boutique Rails Consultancies, but the principals of them do end up in the 1%. is not great for society and I'm highly skeptical t…
What would be the solution you would propose?
I dunno. In principle it's easy to automate the financial stuff but the social stuff wouldn't be automatable and distributing the reward properly is hard there. If a few people are good at communicating they might be tempted to believe that they are the ones bringing in the value, dropping the morale of the engineers doing the concrete work that is the foundation of the value being brought in.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#88To this day, I'm still not quite clear about what a consultant actually does. I mean, beyond some vague idea ("goes to some company, talks with people, gives some recommendation"). I'd really love for someone to give some example or describe in a tangible way what the work of a consultant entails, what skills one typically needs and actually employs, what a typical gig looks like from beginning to end and so on. If a…
Having been in a position where a consultant was foisted upon me by management, at several different companies, near as I can tell they are paid huge sums to restate what the team already knows and has been saying needs to be done. Only they provide it with an approach and language which management can understand.
that's a management consultant, and the reason they're hired is to provide cover and credibility for both management and your technology team.
i.e., "the expensive consultant said it was okay, so don't fire anyone in management, or our technology team, if it goes sideways."
in other words, they're actually helping you do your job because they can compare your recommendation to other companies and teams in the industry and make sure everyone is doing things sanely. in your case, you were smart, and made the right recommendation, so they agreed with you. good job, you're competent, and aren't putting an established company into a risky situation like you would at a startup, which generally does not hire consultants, because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
you probably didn't see it that way, i'm guessing.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#89A relevant side note: If you're getting into consulting, here are my suggestions for writing a good Statement of Work https://kirubakaran.com/blog/consulting-sow/
Your example reads like a programmer wrote it instead of a consultant. - Would not expect to see a "such as" in statement of work in the locations you used them. - Would not expect typos in statement of work. - Consultant will push commits to source control.. I have other employees to code, I would pay an consultant to consult. Define strategy, architecture, coach. Not type code, you are way too expensive for that. A…
Thanks for the feedback. Could you point me to the typos please? I'd like to fix them.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#90One of the problems I've always had with patio11's advice is that the skills he brought to a job was something that could easily be measured, e.g. he mainly did sales funnel optimization so it was easy to see the before and after of the direct impact on the bottom line. As somebody who is a skilled backend developer the value I provide is not as measurable. How can I justify charging a large weekly rate, when almost…
Are you a consultant or freelancer currently? Have you tried doing this justification in the past and how has it gone?
EDIT: length