101–110 of 187 posts
It's thankless and it's tough. Unless of course you've built a network of well-to-do companies over the years that you could tap into and pay you for various services. Then you can just rely on your network.
The 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.…
Wow, you might have just convinced me to consider consulting. This is my natural personality/upbringing and I’ve always hated the internal rah-rah needed to do well for business units in an org, but at the same time am comfortable with self-promotion as needed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
the last one is the toughest, and really comes down to how strong your stomach is and how your business model is structured - e.g. it can't be hourly & net 60, more like flat-fee, 50% upfront.
The solution is an old financial trick that has fallen a bit out of fashion: saving. Not spending everything you earn. It's easy given the very decent consulting rates in software. Sometimes I wonder if everyone is financially illiterate now...
6. 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.
At least that was my experience. So you can have the best of both worlds, or the worst...
6. 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…
Social security systems in European countries tend to be based around people earning a regular salary losing their jobs, rather than consultants having occasional dry spells between projects. This is a problem with the gig economy in general - our social security nets aren't very well designed for it (perhaps an argument in favour of UBI, or at least some different thinking into how social security should work for th…
> When you’re an internal employee, you’re often encouraged to ‘stay in your box’ and not disturb the existing hierarchy. By contrast, as a consultant you don’t need to worry as much about the internal politics or history when suggesting changes. Indeed, you’re often encouraged to step outside your boundaries and make suggestions. What companies encourage this? I want to work for these companies. I have the feeling t…
You might have an approach that is unlikable. I say this because I am exactly that. I often cut straight to the point and can't really read the room. I think I'm helping and being brutally honest when in reality it comes off condescending or arrogant. I heard a quote that I really like, honesty without kindness is cruelty. That helped me rethink my approach towards how I communicate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interviewing staff ("stakeholders") at a customer is always fascinating. I've seen the full range from sincere gratitude at being listened to, through to open hostility and suspicion. The latter was much worse when I was younger and worried about impressions I was making on older-but-not-very-senior people. At some point you just stop giving a shit and let them hate you if they feel threatened.
This too, we're a technical consultancy (DevOps) so we get the gamut of reactions from "You're on my turf" to "Finally someone that my boss will listen to". Getting the former early on severely hurts your chances of success sadly. Edited for spelling
> When you’re an internal employee, you’re often encouraged to ‘stay in your box’ and not disturb the existing hierarchy. By contrast, as a consultant you don’t need to worry as much about the internal politics or history when suggesting changes. Indeed, you’re often encouraged to step outside your boundaries and make suggestions. What companies encourage this? I want to work for these companies. I have the feeling t…
I wouldn't characterize great consultants as "not worrying" about politics or history -- a large part of the job is change management, not just finding the "right" answer but helping ensure it is actually acted on and has impact. But McKinsey does include "maintain an independent perspective" as one of our core values, and entrepreneurship (i.e. not just "staying in your box") is a common expectation across all our p…
That "if" is big though. If you're not good at it, you won't keep clients. If you don't have a good network, you'll be stuck with low end SMB clients that aren't lucrative.