I'd like to know how does he make his clients millions? I feel like consultants are pretty worthless (no offense, never really saw one at work), and thus I'd feel worthless as a consultant. What could I bring in a few weeks to a company that would bring them millions in benefits? Is this true? Or is that also part of marketing yourself as a consultant, to give the impression you bring millions in value, and change the business in ways it wouldn't have had they never consulted you?
How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
201–210 of 495 posts
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some can, some can't, but realistically, even if everyone were turning out articles as good as Steve Yegge's they couldn't all achieve the same name recognition. If you want another example look at mobile app stores. Surely there were thousands of games just as good as Flappy Bird that you've never heard of.
Who is Steve Yegge?
Formerly one of the most prominent programming bloggers but he has been inactive for a while.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#203Is this possible if your tech skills are not in marketing/ecommerce?
What about graphics, audio, embedded systems, networking?
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like you just described my office perfectly.
I wonder how common our shared situation is.
It's got to be pretty common. I run an engineering team, and have to keep the people supporting the old legacy code and product. And while I try to get them to learn new technology, it's hard to keep them distraction-free to focus on the new stuff when bugs keep pouring in on the legacy platforms (that still drive most our revenue). And so that means building either new teams or hiring consultants for new projects. And then you have to manage people feeling like they're stuck and not getting to work on the cool new stuff....
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#205I have an Internet buddy in Chicago named Thomas Ptacek. [...] I decided to invite Thomas out to coffee. At the end of the conversation, Thomas said something which, no exaggeration, changed my life. Thomas: Some food for thought: If this hadn't been a coffee date, but rather a consulting engagement, I'd be writing you a check right now. Me: Three hours at $100 an hour or whatever an intermediate programmer is worth…
To some people, probably.
I'd wager most people don't have someone like tptacek as an internet buddy or knowledge that would interest them, though. They literally mentioned HN karma rank titles... so much for fake internet points? Does this sound odd to anyone else or just me?
There's likely some small percentage of people who can go on to do consulting and charge lots of money. That this applies to a greater amount of people remains to be seen and is not proven by this post.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Step Somewhere-between-1.5-and-infinity: Market the holy shit out of everything you do.
What does that mean?
There is a strong relationship between being famous for and getting paid a lot for giving advice, and that advice being about selling stuff.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always hate that answer, because it doesn't actually answer the "how".
How so? If one asks how they find a traditional job, "look for people who are hiring people like you" is an accepted answer. Same difference, no?
Not really. Getting a traditional job is a lot easier, because there are job boards and such. However, those are notoriously horrible for freelancing.
Saying, "Just go network" glosses over a whole lot of exactly how to do that. It's like, if someone asked, "How do you make a good income investing?" and your response was just, "Pick a few good companies." That's great and all, but it completely ignores the process of actually doing that.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
People will compare hourly rates to people's salaries in a way that don't really compare weekly rates. $200/hr seems rediculously expensive to pay a dev. but a $8k/week will intuitively be compared to the value they get from the project, and 16k to increase wbesite traffic 30% seems like a steal.
What if it's not website traffic or ecom sales you are increasing? What if the payoff is 6 months down the road?
Up to you to sell the benefits of the projects. 6 months is medium, it's not difficult to project that far.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
In my experience, "language that management can understand" just means focusing on answering the following questions:
1. What's the proposed issue/improvement?
2. What are the recommended options?
3. How much time will it take to get done?
In other words, all you really need to communicate is why we're doing it, and when it will be done.
In my experience, they're not interested in challenges faced in implementation. Keep things simple, and deliver on time, and you'll be speaking the "language which management can understand". That's basically all there is to it.
Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)
#210A 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…
Except in the real world (also at Google) the people who "type the code" also do the actual design work.
I quess Perelman was also just "typing a proof".
The amount of clueless people here is astonishing.