You don't get paid for vacation, learning time, marketing time, double tax and of-course no benefits. Consulting makes sense, if you can charge 2x hourly rate a

You don't get paid for vacation, learning time, marketing time, double tax and of-course no benefits. Consulting makes sense, if you can charge 2x hourly rate as you would get as a fulltime salaried employee. And you should have enough reputation in the industry that clients come to you with minimal marketing. If you don't have 2x hourly rate and marketing pull, you would be better off working as a salaried employee. Of-course, you may not "feel" that you have the "freedom". Another alternative is to work with reputed consulting companies, who can do the marketing and some of the wrestling for you. Ofcourse, they will take a portion of your earning.