There's another important point to make: Im generalizing a bit here but if you write code it's relatively easy to find full-time long-term engagements. On the

There's another important point to make: Im generalizing a bit here but if you write code it's relatively easy to find full-time long-term engagements. On the other hand if you're a strategic consultant you're going to spend most of your time blogging, networking, searching for leads, and selling. $20k/week rate is nice but if you only bill 1 week per month you're still making the same annual income as a $5k/week software contractor. The only difference is that you spend most of your time selling while the contractor spends most of their time engineering. Like someone else in this thread said — pick your poison.