It’s great to be a consultant
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It’s great to be a consultant
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Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#2Number 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
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#3I'm happy for him but it was obvious even without reaching the end of the post that he's been a consultant only for two years or so. The consultant's life is not all sunshine and rainbows. Every one of his points, except 2, have huge downsides.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#46. 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 area. I wonder (genuinely, not sarcastically) how many proponents of consulting are in this boat.
Probably varies a lot by locale btw, if you can rely on state schooling and have a strong social security net it's very different.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#5Also: 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!
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#6Number 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
Or you will be fast out project if you ever side with the wrong "persons"(oh and don't forget the regular 6months reorg ).
Overall it's a positive thing indeed, but as consultant/contractor, you will never be immune to politics and company hierarchy.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#7This very much mirrors my experience.
I would like to add, that for people with little professional experience, working in a consultancy can accelerate the rate at which work experience is gained (by working on different projects, perhaps at different clients and with different technologies). This also expects a lot of commitment and willingness to learn (as pointed out in the article).
As an added benefit, one has the chance to look at the inner workings of a lot of different companies if one doesn't want to stay in consulting forever.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#8While I agree with almost all his points — especially you have to keep learning — there are of course trade offs with consulting. In my opinion (as someone who's been running their own consulting company for only 5 months), the major challenges are non-technical. Yes — consulting can be very lucrative but there's a whole other side to running a consulting company: sales & marketing. Without building a proper sales pipeline, you will experience the feast or famine, the constant up and downs.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#9Not quite the same thing, but I'll be joining a consultancy firm soon hoping I'll get more exposure to different techs.
Re: It’s great to be a consultant
#10About point 2, when you factor in all the free time you have spend on learning new stuff, then the salary isn't really that great.
The only way to be a consultant and not working for free is to be self employed and using some time between projects to learn.