I hear this "third way" approach suggested a lot, and as someone who's just starting to dip their toes into it, I think that there's some merit to it. I do worr

I hear this "third way" approach suggested a lot, and as someone who's just starting to dip their toes into it, I think that there's some merit to it. I do worry about how to overcome the principal agency issue and a potential mutual lack of trust that comes from being set up as a consultant rather than an employee. But on the other hand, wouldn't that be an issue anyways whether FTE or a consultant? May as well figure out earlier. Sorry, just thinking out loud here. Honestly, consulting really does seem to be the worst of all worlds, at least for a while, even if you do eventually want FTE. You get to actually test whether you get along with a firm without committing full time. And they have to give you a compelling reason to join for you to do so. If you have the skillset that is useful enough for them to need to hire you in the first place, you also have already means-tested that you are adding value. Maybe it really is the best way to start.