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Do like I (and the author of the article seems to do) do: Work for a consulting company. Company have sales, accounting and a lawyer. I have all the benefits

Do like I (and the author of the article seems to do) do: Work for a consulting company. Company have sales, accounting and a lawyer. I have all the benefits described in the article.

sam_lowry_ 5y ago
Consulting companies take a cut and and working for one company closes more doors that it opens. Businesses usually have a handful of preferred suppliers they source consultant from, as well as black lists. One thing a consultant has to figure out is how the procurement works in places they want to join. Some things are surprisingly public, like many tendering websites. You do not have to answer to a tender directly, but you can always check who is winning and who is likely to need more people aboard and apply using that knowledge.
- benjaminwootton 5y ago
  They do “take a cut”, but signing up and managing relationships with big companies is extraordinarily difficult, time consuming and expensive. If you are working through one boutique consultancy you aren’t actually doing too badly. Sometimes you’ll be working through a system integrator, through a boutique consultancy, and through a staffing agency. And to some degree they are all delivering some value, simply because working with big corporates is so painful and getting direct relationships is so difficult.
ahartmetz 5y ago
In my experience and from what I hear, the rates are nothing like working for yourself - just the usual distribution of salaries for what you work on. If it's SAP consulting, yeah you might earn well (Germany - SAP stuff pays like 50%+ more).
haspok 5y ago
You are also paid peanuts (compared to real contractors/consultants), and you have close to zero say of what projects / clients you get to work on / with. And you are essentially just a cost cell in an excel spreadsheet for the HR of the consulting company (interestingly, clients may respect you more). At least that was my experience. So you can have the best of both worlds, or the worst...
- eitland 5y ago
  Well, you can do as I do and work for a company that is owned by the employees. I have plenty to say about were I work as long as there is a good opportunity and if there are none that our sales team can find I wouldn't have found them on my own anyways I'm afraid ;-) But yes, I still only have a very good salary, not what HN would expect for "real contractors" but it is stable and worry free and I have good colleagues.

Do like I (and the author of the article seems to do) do: Work for a consulting company. Company have sales, accounting and a lawyer. I have all the benefits described in the article.

sam_lowry_ 5y ago

Consulting companies take a cut and and working for one company closes more doors that it opens. Businesses usually have a handful of preferred suppliers they source consultant from, as well as black lists. One thing a consultant has to figure out is how the procurement works in places they want to join. Some things are surprisingly public, like many tendering websites. You do not have to answer to a tender directly, but you can always check who is winning and who is likely to need more people aboard and apply using that knowledge.

benjaminwootton 5y ago
They do “take a cut”, but signing up and managing relationships with big companies is extraordinarily difficult, time consuming and expensive. If you are working through one boutique consultancy you aren’t actually doing too badly. Sometimes you’ll be working through a system integrator, through a boutique consultancy, and through a staffing agency. And to some degree they are all delivering some value, simply because working with big corporates is so painful and getting direct relationships is so difficult.

ahartmetz 5y ago

In my experience and from what I hear, the rates are nothing like working for yourself - just the usual distribution of salaries for what you work on. If it's SAP consulting, yeah you might earn well (Germany - SAP stuff pays like 50%+ more).

haspok 5y ago

You are also paid peanuts (compared to real contractors/consultants), and you have close to zero say of what projects / clients you get to work on / with. And you are essentially just a cost cell in an excel spreadsheet for the HR of the consulting company (interestingly, clients may respect you more). At least that was my experience. So you can have the best of both worlds, or the worst...

eitland 5y ago
Well, you can do as I do and work for a company that is owned by the employees. I have plenty to say about were I work as long as there is a good opportunity and if there are none that our sales team can find I wouldn't have found them on my own anyways I'm afraid ;-) But yes, I still only have a very good salary, not what HN would expect for "real contractors" but it is stable and worry free and I have good colleagues.