Breaking the bonds of tyranny
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This section of the forum seems a little dead, but I'll give it a shot anyways. Ok, so maybe the title's a bit of an exaggeration. But I am beginning to feel this way about salaried employment. I've only worked in two jobs but have talked to many others who describe a similar situation. Things are tedious in the corporate world, projects get stalled, code gets "maintained" (aka hundreds of format changes) and there's the inevitable waiting for approval and doing things to your bosses' "standards". After reading a couple books on getting into consulting it seems like it might be the thing for me. What I'm hoping to find here is some advice or even better wisdom from others who have gone down this road. I have 3 years experience and already feel like I am more productive and adept than my co-workers. I am by no means an expert but I also don't see my current line of work as a way to get to that level. What are some of your regrets or decisions that you are grateful for having made? Is 3 years experience too early to start on my own? What can I do to better prepare myself for the business aspect of consulting?
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This section of the forum seems a little dead, but I'll give it a shot anyways. Ok, so maybe the title's a bit of an exaggeration. But I am beginning to feel this way about salaried employment. I've only worked in two jobs but have talked to many others who describe a similar situation. Things are tedious in the corporate world, projects get stalled, code gets "maintained" (aka hundreds of format changes) and there's the inevitable waiting for approval and doing things to your bosses' "standards". After reading a couple books on getting into consulting it seems like it might be the thing for me. What I'm hoping to find here is some advice or even better wisdom from others who have gone down this road. I have 3 years experience and already feel like I am more productive and adept than my co-workers. I am by no means an expert but I also don't see my current line of work as a way to get to that level. What are some of your regrets or decisions that you are grateful for having made? Is 3 years experience too early to start on my own? What can I do to better prepare myself for the business aspect of consulting?
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Thanks very much, exactly what i was looking for.
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Thanks very much, exactly what i was looking for.
You're welcome.
I have CDO, it's OCD with the letters in the right order; just as they ruddy well should be
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
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This section of the forum seems a little dead, but I'll give it a shot anyways. Ok, so maybe the title's a bit of an exaggeration. But I am beginning to feel this way about salaried employment. I've only worked in two jobs but have talked to many others who describe a similar situation. Things are tedious in the corporate world, projects get stalled, code gets "maintained" (aka hundreds of format changes) and there's the inevitable waiting for approval and doing things to your bosses' "standards". After reading a couple books on getting into consulting it seems like it might be the thing for me. What I'm hoping to find here is some advice or even better wisdom from others who have gone down this road. I have 3 years experience and already feel like I am more productive and adept than my co-workers. I am by no means an expert but I also don't see my current line of work as a way to get to that level. What are some of your regrets or decisions that you are grateful for having made? Is 3 years experience too early to start on my own? What can I do to better prepare myself for the business aspect of consulting?
What exactly do you mean by consulting? Do you simply mean doing contract work or do you mean real consulting? Are you talking about just simply telling recruiters to find you 3 or 6 month projects or are you talking about building a company where you sell your services? Real consulting is probably 20% coding tops. The rest is sales and business analysis.
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What exactly do you mean by consulting? Do you simply mean doing contract work or do you mean real consulting? Are you talking about just simply telling recruiters to find you 3 or 6 month projects or are you talking about building a company where you sell your services? Real consulting is probably 20% coding tops. The rest is sales and business analysis.
I would like majority of my time to be coding. I realize to start this way I would need to work entirely with recruiters at first. My hope is that through networking and ambitious marketing I could gradually reduce the amount of leads found through recruiters.
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I would like majority of my time to be coding. I realize to start this way I would need to work entirely with recruiters at first. My hope is that through networking and ambitious marketing I could gradually reduce the amount of leads found through recruiters.
In this case, you are talking about going contracting.
I have CDO, it's OCD with the letters in the right order; just as they ruddy well should be
Forgive your enemies - it messes with their heads
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I would like majority of my time to be coding. I realize to start this way I would need to work entirely with recruiters at first. My hope is that through networking and ambitious marketing I could gradually reduce the amount of leads found through recruiters.
As Pete said, this is contracting and is VASTLY different from consulting or working for yourself. To run a consulting firm you need a wide range of skills, the LEAST of which is coding skills. Depending on what country/region you are in contracting can also be quite different. In western countries a contractor is often required to have above norm skills and a fairly wide range of coding abilities. Whereas in Asia the contractor is considered the poor bugger who is not good enough to land a permanent job. Very different attitudes. However if you think you are going to get away from delays, politics and bureaucracy think again, they are still there but with a little more pressure.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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As Pete said, this is contracting and is VASTLY different from consulting or working for yourself. To run a consulting firm you need a wide range of skills, the LEAST of which is coding skills. Depending on what country/region you are in contracting can also be quite different. In western countries a contractor is often required to have above norm skills and a fairly wide range of coding abilities. Whereas in Asia the contractor is considered the poor bugger who is not good enough to land a permanent job. Very different attitudes. However if you think you are going to get away from delays, politics and bureaucracy think again, they are still there but with a little more pressure.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
Thanks for the reply! I guess what I was thinking is not consulting in the traditional sense that you two see, but as more of a specialized service. In my area there is a large pool of demand for .net programming(Chicago), so much that I think with the right networking I could work for myself without needing a headhunter to find me jobs. I didn't dream up this job description either. The company I work for as well as my previous employer had specialized projects which were done by a purely .net consultant who would come in as needed to make suggestions/modifications. I don't fancy starting a firm or having employees underneath me. Just the power to command more respect for my time and the opportunity work on a greater variety of projects. I realize that the politics and bureaucratic aspects of being a developer won't go away, but from what I've seen roadblocks get moved much quicker when there's a direct cost to them.
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Thanks for the reply! I guess what I was thinking is not consulting in the traditional sense that you two see, but as more of a specialized service. In my area there is a large pool of demand for .net programming(Chicago), so much that I think with the right networking I could work for myself without needing a headhunter to find me jobs. I didn't dream up this job description either. The company I work for as well as my previous employer had specialized projects which were done by a purely .net consultant who would come in as needed to make suggestions/modifications. I don't fancy starting a firm or having employees underneath me. Just the power to command more respect for my time and the opportunity work on a greater variety of projects. I realize that the politics and bureaucratic aspects of being a developer won't go away, but from what I've seen roadblocks get moved much quicker when there's a direct cost to them.
shiznit770 wrote:
which were done by a purely .net consultant
I did this sort of work in the 90s, one man show, T&M or sometimes fixed price, do the job from design to help system and training. You are right in that it commanded much more respect, it also required a very wide range of skills and it was a fascinatng to move into different industries and solve their problems. It is still a lot of paperwork and admin, if you can keep it to a one man show it is survuvable, expand and see your coding time dissapear. Income is variable and it hurts when you (rarely) need to pass on a job b/c you are already too busy when you know you will be out of jobs in 6 weeks! I eventually went to pure contracting.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH