In the past consultants were paid well since they were the experienced people. They worked on the interesting projects, they saw things, they really were good a

In the past consultants were paid well since they were the experienced people. They worked on the interesting projects, they saw things, they really were good at something - so they would bring best practice from one company to another. Now the business model has changed. It is much easier to know what is the best practice. So what they do is hire juniors and sell them as mids or seniors. Good programmers dont really go to consulting firms anymore. It is not worth their time. Why work at BIG4 when you will get paid better in FAANG? If you say are a developer at crypto (ignoring that it is a scam) all the good projects are at crypto companies. Best that consultants can do is some slides or trick some company to implement blockchain instead of a database. Consulting companies lost their edge. They dont really play the game anymore. They can take some bad project and then outsource it to a cheap team. Or get a very bad project that is a total mess - ans then fail to repair that mess. If you want good software you go to a software house (that can still deliver crap). Apart from very specific skills, consultant programmers mostly do the shit projects - that nobody wants to touch. Or they are "staff augmentation" - headcount outside of salary budget. Also the consulting lifestyle just sucks: constant overtime, burnout, travel. Some people like it. Most dont. Most people in consulting search for an exit opportunity after few years. Programmers can exit faster, so the good programmers will leave consulting firms fast (it is different for business consultants - they have it much harder to leave, so they stay longer). But coming back: if you are in finance, or project management then sure - consulting can help your career at big personal cost. For skills like programming it is completely not worth it. If you are a junior programmer just try to go to a FAANG to earn 3x more. A "normal" company will pay you similar as big4. So why bother with all the travel and stress? If you are really experienced programmer, say 15 years - again you dont want to go to consulting. You can land a senior job, be paid well and not travel at all. So all those companies take people who are still smart but couldnt get better. Also consulting companies lie all the time: juniors are sold as seniors (especially programmers, but normal consultants too). And the development there is hard - due to travel and overtime they have it jard to learn on their own (no spare time). They also focus on closing a project, not on doing it well. What I try to write is that if you want to be a programmer nowadays it is better to do it in a software company from day one. Being a programmer at a consulting company is not worth the stress. Also doesnt pay better. It is a bit different if you are in finance or project managent, but even here it seems that the ability to boost your career by doing few years of consulting is becoming less worth it. The exit opportunities seem to happen less. Consulting is much less elite as it used to be. The consulting companies dont really have much edge anymore.