Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

training.kalzumeus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 495 posts

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#351

Post by qdoop »

md224 wrote: post #343
qdoop wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy it while it lasts. In less than a decade you will be replaced for sure for a younger one no matter how good you are. http://worrydream.com/#!/MeanwhileAtCodeOrg

Ugh, this is definitely a fear of mine. I'm 33, and the other day I realized that I'm one of the oldest employees of the startup I work at... older than my boss and possibly older than the founders themselves. It was a strange and slightly disconcerting feeling, realizing I was now the "old" guy. I know about the ageism in the industry, and I do worry that in 5-10 years I'll be struggling to find work. I hope I'm wro…

At your age also had this fear that turned true much faster since i come from GREECE. The only way i manage it is by putting my expertise on personal projects and sell my services really really cheap. Real example: Currently i am developing a lean version of a product for 2000Euro that a US company sells for 15000$ (That is the most a local client offered to pay) I invest my personal time with the hope that if works fine i could sell more of them for a decent profit.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#352

Post by walshemj »

amazingman wrote: post #264
Steeeve wrote: post #249

Addressing several of the threads here: If you're doing contract development that can be done half as well for a quarter of the cost by an offshore team, you are not doing consulting. You are competing in an arena that you will never be able to win. If you want to consult for good money, you have to create your market and you have to have the confidence of that market. You have to be able to give C-level execs advice…

I’m sure you meant nothing by it, but I just want to point out that using the word “guy” here is needlessly exclusionary. I’m personally working to grow beyond similar habits in my own speech.

I am in a similar but but now in UK and US vernacular in think "guy" or "guys" is becoming less gendered especially amongst younger workers.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#353

Post by qdoop »

striking wrote: post #338
qdoop wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Enjoy it while it lasts. In less than a decade you will be replaced for sure for a younger one no matter how good you are. http://worrydream.com/#!/MeanwhileAtCodeOrg

This seems like an unproductive rephrasing of the comments made in the linked piece, ironically not unlike how people unproductively rephrased Papert's paper. (And even those comments are strawmen of what's posted on code.org, especially considering they're brief snippets of marketing material and not parts of a research paper.)

Once there were coal miners. Today they are SW programmers. The INDUSTRY needs you!!!

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#354

Post by infinity0 »

opencl wrote: post #316
infinity0 wrote: post #71

Earlier 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…

>unclear how best to achieve the same level of efficiency whilst simultaneously not allowing the principals the power to centralise reward to themselves as well Everyone does literally the exact same thing but you add profit sharing to the consultancy. As the article said "Clients Pay For Value, Not For Time." Unless the principals are somehow actually providing the overwhelming share of the value rather than the peo…

Well, "profit sharing" literally describes all possible potential (good and bad) solutions to the problem. How do you determine what is a good vs bad solution?

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#355

Post by pacomerh »

patio11 wrote: post #293
kleiba wrote: post #57

To 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…

My modal engagement was with a SaaS company with $20 million a year sales, a few dozen employees, and 1~3 very strapped people wearing the marketing hat. “How much email do you send?” “We have a newsletter.” “What else?” “Welcome to free trial email. “What else?” “Nothing.” I write proposal. You should: 1) Have a pre-sales drip campaign positioned as a “free course about X delivered over email” w/ 8 emails arriving o…

If this is what a consultant is I don't want to be one, or maybe this example is very particular to sales/marketing. Or maybe this same example can be applied to several domains meaning that as a consultant you can solve companies problems depending on your already established expertise.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#356

Post by walshemj »

cornellwright wrote: post #262
aerovistae wrote: post #250

The problem with patio11's blogs is that he seems to exist in a different world from most programmers, I feel. > So $100 per hour, even though it is not a market rate for e.g. intermediate Ruby on Rails programmers Uh, $100 an hour is $208,000 annually full-time. Unless Patrick is referring exclusively to the Bay Area upper crust, I don't know how he reaches the conclusion that $100 an hour is "not even market rate f…

$100/hr is only that much if you bill 40 hrs per week, every week. It does not account for non-billable time, vacation, sick time, etc. You are also taxed higher and have to provide your own benefits. You are taking on higher risk due to the temporary nature of most engagements. If you're billing $100/hr you're not making bad money, but it's nowhere near equivalent to a $200K W-2 job.

consultant that wanted to aim for the same as a 200k pa job would be charging around the $500 an hour rate to allow for down time holidays etc

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#357

Post by jwhitlark »

user5994461 wrote: post #214
oblio wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was always in the wording :)

"Freelance" is the offshore developers on elance.com working for a dollar an hour and the students working after class for free who are desperate to get experience. "contractor" is the replacement status for permanent employees. They are outside of normal payroll and company benefits, they usually do 1 to 6 months repeatable contracts. "consultants" is the experienced people who need to be called by up-the-chain to p…

Or, you tell contractors what to do, but consultants tell you what to do.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#358

Post by chrishacken »

yequalsx wrote: post #330
chrishacken wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personalities are built; you're not born an introvert. Anyone can be built into a leader; go join the Marine Corps if you don't believe me.

I didn't say anything about being an introvert or any other personality type. I don't know patio11 or anyone else who commands high consulting fees. But clearly it is more than just knowledge that gets patio11 high fees. There is personality too. If patio11 were a raging asshole then his employability would decrease. I've met Marines that were assholes so I'm guessing that 'join the Marine Corps' isn't as great advic…

You're completely missing the point. Being an asshole is a choice. My point is that anyone can be a consultant that puts their all into it. Being an asshole isn't in your DNA.

A Drill Instructor being a dickhead is also a choice. It doesn't make him any less able to be a leader. My point was, joining the Marine Corps turns weak individuals into respectable men that can command dignity and respect into people. What they choose to do with that transformation is up to them.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#359

Post by jghn »

putnam wrote: post #116
jghn wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond what taway20171214 said, don't discount the value of "language which management can understand". As I've moved up the ladder I've learned how extremely valuable this skill is and how woefully bad I am at it.

What do you do now?

Right now I'm in that limbo zone between coder who manages and manager who codes
Post reply on HN