It can be very shallow though. Steve Jobs on consulting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c4CNB80SRc
It’s great to be a consultant
11–20 of 187 posts
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#12Also: when the client makes sub-optimal decisions you can take solace in the fact that you won't be around to deal with the consequences. And if it causes you to bill more hours - it's a bonus!
It is not like employees stick around that long either anyway.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#13excellent post
worth noting that this OP seems like he is still an employee AT a consultancy, so in effect having the 'best of both worlds' - a secure income + wide exposure to client projects. Presumably, there will be internal politics within the consultancy, particularly if he wants to move up in status or responsibility.
I would add that senior roles in consultancies of this type inevitably become sales roles - responsibility shifts from delivery (individual contributor does this) to customer acquisition (partner does this), which will come with this its own set of pro's and cons.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#14The secret on how to become a great consultant:
Take all the blame, distribute all the praise.
Here is the thing, being a consultant is a thankless job, and it needs to be. If a project does not go as planned, the success does not happen. Take the blame. You are an external, it does not matter. They got you into the company to improve the state of the client, to improve them. If it does not happen, you are to blame. And they need someone to blame, so just take it.
If you succeed, spread the praise. You worked with them, it was the right decision that they hired you, so they did great. And you just humble helped them to unlock the potential they already had.
Thing is, in scenario 1, if you deflect blame, they will not hire you again. And they will badmouth you if somebody asks. You you take the blame, they might not hire you again, but they will respect you when somebody asks about you.
In scenario 2, if you take all the praise, they will not feel good about themselves, and will not WOM (word of mouth) you. If you spread the praise, they will feel good about themselves, talk about their success and will so WOM you.
A thankless job. I love it.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#15What I love the most about being in a consultance-esque role:
-Networking. I talk to more people daily than my CS colleagues do in a week. -I still have time to program in the evening. A lot of work I do is kind of "shallow", talking about tech instead of making it. At 6PM my brain is still capable of a few hours of programming. When I get maybe get a good 4, 5 hours of coding out of my brain per day. I used to use these ours at my job, now I use these hours building my own thing with a few friends
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#16I looked at his employer's job openings. Lost me at "online personality assessment".
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#17I did a consulting stint in the CNCF and cloud native space for a while(5 yrs). My company was aquired and things really started to be about butts in seats and being billable all the time.
I had a manager I could reach out to but I maybe talked with them once or twice a year. While being able to continue personal development sounds nice on paper, and believe me, the company touted training time and ability to disconnect from customers, I never found the chance to pursue those goals. It was all about being onsite with the customer to bring in those $$ as billable time.
I loved my customers and consider many good friends to this day. However, the toil continued to burn in, not to mention the 100% travel; my personal life began to take a hit.
I got out of consulting and work as an engineer now. It was a valuable experience, and I worked with some really cool customers. But my personal life comes first and I now expect a certain level of support from my workplace now.
I do miss the network I made as a consultant, and a certain amount of travel is nice. Being able to drive innovation through digital transformation in a 60+ yr old organization leaves a good feeling of purpose. I wish there was some sort of happpy medium.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#186. The sense of relief when your invoice is paid is amazing. 7. Having to go into projects that really don't make sense but pay your bills teaches diplomacy and patience. 8. Having long-term financial committments on the one hand (mortgage, school and medical bills etc.) and short-term uncertain revenue is an interesting mental exercise to engage in. The last one is the killer for me I think, having dabbled in this a…
Do like I (and the author of the article seems to do) do:
Work for a consulting company.
Company have sales, accounting and a lawyer.
I have all the benefits described in the article.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#19The secret on how to become a great consultant: Take all the blame, distribute all the praise. Here is the thing, being a consultant is a thankless job, and it needs to be. If a project does not go as planned, the success does not happen. Take the blame. You are an external, it does not matter. They got you into the company to improve the state of the client, to improve them. If it does not happen, you are to blame.…
Damn. This was very poetic. Great response. True diplomat.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#20Number 1: You are outside the company hierarchy This talks about not getting stuck in the politics of the company and having the authority/right to instigate change. It can be equally validly read as: Number 1: If your company is hiring consultants that are outside the hierarchy you have a potentially toxic political business culture and should look for a new job
Number 1 annoyed me most when I was in consulting and was one of the main reasons I quit. You can always give recommendations but have no leverage whatsoever if all advise is ignored and the work you did for months just lands in some archive. And even if that's clear from the start (and the work is just to tick some boxes), you might not be able to afford to lose that client by refusing the work. Working for months knowing that the output will be looked at once and discarded was too frustrating to me, no matter the perks and other advantages the job had.
All of that can happen as an employee, but usually you have some leverage via management or your internal network to either get results into action or stop projects if it's clear they don't make sense (one of the reasons they're then given to consultants instead if management insists they're done).