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I have been in consulting for several years and then back to permanent positions. What advice do you have for people who are happy to do technical work but fin

I have been in consulting for several years and then back to permanent positions. What advice do you have for people who are happy to do technical work but find too stressful (in terms of 'people skills') to manage clients and the networking side of sourcing clients?

lupire 4y ago
Find someone to pimp you out for 25-50%.
- pc86 4y ago
  Standard rate is 30% for placement of permanent positions (e.g. recruiters) and 10% for contract.
  - Silhouette 4y ago
    30% for how long though? 10% seems low for a UK recruitment agency placing contractors in software dev or similar fields unless we're talking about relatively long engagements and the recruiter fees continue throughout.
    - pc86 4y ago
      I've seen the following in action: 1. Recruiter sources a direct hire. At hire they're paid 30% of one year's salary, and if the hire is still there 30/60/90 days later, they keep the money. 2. 10% finders fee for fixed-price contract to a contractor (paid by the contractor, not the company) 3. Company employs someone, who is then billed out to another company as staff augmentation / contract. Markup varies widely but ranges from 2-200% and in my experience is inversely proportional to the quality of the person doing the work.
ukoki 4y ago
In terms of networking: I get all my clients from recruiters reaching out to me LinkedIn. I've "SEO"d my profile to make sure all keywords (and every variation) for the tech I specialise is in my profile. In terms of making money without being in a supervisory role: Become really good at operating / devopsing niche enterprise software. Try and specialise in software where: * There aren't many users (and therefore few competing specialists) * The users are large, rich enterprises * It's "legacy" and therefore the pool of competing specialists is shrinking (but importantly the pool of customers is shrinking at a slower rate than the pool of specialists) * It's complicated * The software provides enough value to its users such that paying an incredibly expensive contractor to look after it is much cheaper than not using the software and having to pay the salaries of the dozens/hundreds of jobs the software automates away.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  We’re talking about ERP systems now? Just the server to run those things on costs more than your monthly rate :)

lupire 4y ago

Find someone to pimp you out for 25-50%.

pc86 4y ago
Standard rate is 30% for placement of permanent positions (e.g. recruiters) and 10% for contract.
- Silhouette 4y ago
  30% for how long though? 10% seems low for a UK recruitment agency placing contractors in software dev or similar fields unless we're talking about relatively long engagements and the recruiter fees continue throughout.
  - pc86 4y ago
    I've seen the following in action: 1. Recruiter sources a direct hire. At hire they're paid 30% of one year's salary, and if the hire is still there 30/60/90 days later, they keep the money. 2. 10% finders fee for fixed-price contract to a contractor (paid by the contractor, not the company) 3. Company employs someone, who is then billed out to another company as staff augmentation / contract. Markup varies widely but ranges from 2-200% and in my experience is inversely proportional to the quality of the person doing the work.

ukoki 4y ago

In terms of networking: I get all my clients from recruiters reaching out to me LinkedIn. I've "SEO"d my profile to make sure all keywords (and every variation) for the tech I specialise is in my profile. In terms of making money without being in a supervisory role: Become really good at operating / devopsing niche enterprise software. Try and specialise in software where: * There aren't many users (and therefore few competing specialists) * The users are large, rich enterprises * It's "legacy" and therefore the pool of competing specialists is shrinking (but importantly the pool of customers is shrinking at a slower rate than the pool of specialists) * It's complicated * The software provides enough value to its users such that paying an incredibly expensive contractor to look after it is much cheaper than not using the software and having to pay the salaries of the dozens/hundreds of jobs the software automates away.

Aeolun 4y ago
We’re talking about ERP systems now? Just the server to run those things on costs more than your monthly rate :)