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The article specifically excludes outsourced development from its definition of consulting: I’m not talking about becoming one of those contractors who are bil
by ern 5y ago
The article specifically excludes outsourced development from its definition of consulting:
I’m not talking about becoming one of those contractors who are billed out by their companies as “consultants” but are really just serial hired hands. I’m referring to a true consultant role, where you are paid to bring expertise, give advice, and drive technical change.*
- ThePadawan 5y agoYeaaaah, I have never once heard anyone use the word "consultant" to mean the latter.
- scrollaway 5y agoClearly multiple people in this thread and the original article itself. Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places?
- ThePadawan 5y agoI've spoken to multiple consultancies to try and figure out if the career path would work out for me. All of them made it clear that their MO is to provide asses in seats to build software quickly, then hand it over to the customer to whatever they liked with it - generally hire a bunch of outsourced developers to keep it barely alive, maybe add a feature or two per year. Now TBF this is Switzerland, where salaries are always very high, but employee stock options etc. are pretty much unknown (outside of Google). Generally that means that companies are already spending shitloads of cash on software developers, so they might as well hire them as employees, not contractors.
- PeterisP 5y agoWhen a major company "brings in consultants" they generally mean exactly calling up one of the major consulting firms and bringing in a bunch of outsourced short-term people (those "hired hands") and not e.g. freelance experts; and while these "hired hands" contractors are quite different in practice from "proper consultants" as the article describes, they usually are advertised as the same thing.
- DonHopkins 5y agoThen maybe you should do a stint in consulting -- you'll learn something new every day! See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28549676 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28549676
- ThePadawan 5y agoI have. That's why I stopped doing it.
- robertlagrant 5y agoSame, having been a consultant for 10 years.
- quietbritishjim 5y agoBy "serial hired hand" I think the article is taking about someone who is technically a contractor but gets repeatedly contacted by the same company for the same project over a period of years. They end with (almost) the same level code ownership as a regular employee. That's not what the parent comment was taking about.