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It’s great to be a consultant

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Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#181

Post by adamauckland »

sudosysgen wrote: post #135
danjac wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone pays the same taxes and contributions into society as others, then surely they are entitled to something in return? I get there's no easy answer here but gig workers are also "consultants" who may not be earning enough to build a buffer.

Well yes, they do get something in return for their taxes, don't they? As far as gig workers, they do get something in return for the instability, which is (in theory) higher hourly pay and more flexible achedules. If they aren't getting this, they aren't really gig workers and should be labelled as employees, but if they are, they get a benefit for the risk they take. Personally I think that many gig workers should…

What about all the people with other responsibilities like single parents or caregivers or people with disabilities who can't commit to a regular 9-5 job? They're not getting high paid gig jobs, just flexible hours.

Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#182

Post by SenHeng »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #169
misthop wrote: post #2

Number 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

Aa an ex consultant I (re?)discovered a paradox If a company is competent they don't need consultants If a company is incompetent they can't use consultants Yet consultants exist ...

> Only a Sith deals in absolutes.

If we instead use a scale from 0 to 100, and we understand that all companies are somewhere in between, then the paradox ceases to exist.

Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#183

Post by danjac »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #172
danjac wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone pays the same taxes and contributions into society as others, then surely they are entitled to something in return? I get there's no easy answer here but gig workers are also "consultants" who may not be earning enough to build a buffer.

Exactly. Generally consultants can reduce their tax liability in various ways. Gig workers who not earning enough would be better off with a permie low paid job, if they were able to get one. Unfortunately, a lot of people are not useful enough to society to contribute and live in some places - I think the solution is to send them somewhere else where they can be useful and find a job.

> Unfortunately, a lot of people are not useful enough to society to contribute and live in some places

That would include such socially useless people like school teachers and nurses, I guess.

Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#184

Post by Silhouette »

datavirtue wrote: post #152
scrollaway wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the person you're replying to but also a consultant. While I realized this is an extremely privileged position, the above does not ring true for tech consultants in general. I know this is all anecdotal, but the pandemic has been a huge boom to tech consultants. Yes, some companies fired theirs, but also a massive influx of companies seeking help with completely new systems and procedures, especially by people wh…

Same here. Our firm set records during the pandemic as tech layoffs were coming by the thousands in our city. None of our people were without clients. Some of the lower quality clients pulled back but there are plenty of companies with enormous tech backlogs.

These effects are both industry- and location-specific though. The tech sector has obviously done better than most in recent times.

Even in tech, here in the UK the government decided to push through some tax reforms aimed squarely at extracting more money from freelancers and contractors. The change in the rules had some unfortunate and possibly unintended side effects: many large clients got nervous about new potential liabilities and simply shut down those kinds of outsourced work altogether around the same time, which actually created downward pressure on rates for a while. I know several people who had been independents for a long time but went permanent instead as a result of this new environment, though it seems like the situation has started to stabilise now and a more "normal" market is operating again.

Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#185

Post by yobbo »

franze wrote: post #14

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.…

Partly true.

If your job is to create or be a "politically acceptable" pretext for an unavoidable decision, then you will have adversaries who will want to discredit you. This means that in order to be effective you have to engage in debates and conflicts.

Re: It’s great to be a consultant

#187

Post by reilly3000 »

tiffanyh wrote: post #115

Counter argument for those who think consulting is "great" (because it's not - at least from a business owners perspective). TLDR: consulting has huge variable costs, you have to float A LOT of money, no reoccurring revenue, difficult to differentiate since people are your "product". - the business model of consulting is extremely grinding, difficult and exhausting for business owners - your "product" is your people,…

This. Also it creates perverse incentives, where consultants are expected to be constantly selling new work, yet taking their sweet time to deliver. After running a small consultancy for several years, I'm never going back there, nor to a place where I am a "resource".
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