Slashdot Mirror
How to Become an IT Expert Companies Seek Out and Pay Well (Video)
This video is an interview with Matt Heusser, who makes a good living as an independent IT consultant. He says many other people who are currently pounding out code or performing other routine computer-oriented tasks can become independent, too. He's not selling a course or anything here, just passing on some advice to fellow Slashdot readers. He's written up some of this advice in a series of four articles: Getting People to Throw Money At You; How to become IT Talent; That Last Step to Become ‘Talent’ In IT; and The Schwan’s Solution. He also gave a speech last November titled Building your reputation through creative disobedience. (The link is to a 50 minute video of that speech.) Anyway, we figure quite a few Slashdot readers are at least as smart as Matt and may want to take some career steps similar to the ones he has taken. In today's video, he gives you some ideas about how to stop being an IT worker and how to become IT talent instead.
Get Slashdot to do your advertising for you.
... wait, what?
While there might be a rare chance for someone to do well as a consultant, such a life does not do well for the greater part. Temporary work is done at the expense of the worker.
Permanency does have its benefits that outweigh any increases in pay(which are undone by costs related to being a single person vs a respectably sized company).
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
do things others are unwilling to do in IT = Impossible dead lines , hack jobs that just lead to big issues down the road, going behind the back of the higher up, working under the table, braking the law and so on.
PHD is over kill for most IT jobs and one can be a trun off to HR as you come off as needing a very high pay.
IT needs more hand on learning not years in the class room and more tech schools.
independent some times have a hard time getting payed and you may at time play a lot of phone tag and some time even need to sue to get paid.
this content."
My loss.
at least obamacare give them Health insurance
I learned from Wally.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
.... A lot of "I'm so awesome because I've figured out this obvious thing all on my own" and not much "here's how you can be awesome too"...
I did short term 'gigs' as an IT guy back in the early 90's... I was getting $150/hr back then resurrecting SunOS filesystems, setting up backup regimens, installing new disks, NIS, plotters, firewalls, blah blah blah... The problem with it is, while the money is great, it's rarely for a full 40 hour week because someone wants you to come over tuesday at 9:30 to upgrade a disk in some computer... You haven't started bright and early and it should take you a couple hours unless something goes wrong, so you can't book something else until maybe late afternoon the same day... Suddenly you find you've made $300 that day, or maybe $600 if you're lucky... Lots of 1-2hr billable days... Sometimes you score and get a couple of 15 hour weeks... You're still making chump change and you're generating a lot of small invoices... Sure, it's 20 years later so your billable rate has gone up but your cost of living has as well... You're good so you get a lot of word-of-mouth new clients and if you don't piss off any of the existing ones, you should be able to be fairly busy; but there's still a limit to what you can reasonably do in a single day...
Cut forward, and I picked up some 1-3 month 'gigs'... Good money. But suddenly you've lost your big handful of faithful clients because you're stuck servicing one client for 3 months so your other clients have lined up other people to do their small work... Now you've got to line up your next gig after you've finished the present one... It's rare to go from gig to gig so you end up sitting around for a month, maybe picking up a few short day things at $200/hr... You're still not breaking 6 figures... (again, this is now the late 90s early 2000's)...
Now I've got a 5 year contract gig at an embedded linux shop doing board bringups, bsp's, drivers, et'al... This has been super lucrative, super easy, relatively interesting, and I get to go home at the end of the day not thinking about work....
(AC because I don't feel like going through password retrieval)
It's not a job, it's not employment, it's business. I sincerely doubt HR even know he's done work there.
I'm a contractor, I go in to solve their problems, US $90 an hour, when I'm done, I'm done. The Invoice is in the post.
I never have to interface with HR, I'm not looking for Health Insurance, Gym membership or any of that stuff, leave that too the employees.
If I had a PhD then it would probably go quite a way for me, might not get a potential employee too far, but then that's not what PhDs are for!
That's how you get ahead in IT (and every other career). Always be learning and keeping busy. If you spend a lot of time at work on Facebook, some young 20 something is going to replace you. Soon.
Repeat until you understand: 'There is no such thing as permanent employment.'
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
PHD is over kill for most IT jobs and one can be a trun off to HR as you come off as needing a very high pay.M
This isn't about becoming an employee - this is about going independent. And that PhD impresses the hell out of people looking to hire a consultant - it ain't HR making that decision, it is a nervous nelly exec. They like that stuff because it gives them CYA - if you screw up they can say, "don't blame me, he had great credentials."
I don't have a PhD, but before I retired I was raking in the bucks (lawyer level hourly rates) to serve as little more than a security blanket for middle level management. I was *the* expert and if I couldn't fix it, then it couldn't be fixed. Or at least that was the way it got sold to upper management. Their problems were never that hard to begin with and I never exaggerated them either, but that wasn't the point - it was the feeling of security that was worth the big bucks to the hiring managers - budget was a known manageable quantity, the threat (to their jobs) of failure was not.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
What IT needs is to make it so you know your shit stepping out into the real world, most 1st year workers get hit with cold water stepping out from the safety of the school lab into production data used by hundreds at once (if it's thousands+ please don't let 1st year workers get at it). Don't know anybody with a PHD in computers... but doctors require a PHD and computers aren't people, so I'd have to agree a PHD is overkill, but it amazes me how many people work in IT without a degree, I think that self-learning is perfectly legit... but why not go get that degree anyways? At the very least, it'll probably increase your pay and open more doors on your way to your next job. A masters tends to land people the bread and butter in the industry, high pay, high knowledge jobs, with others doing the groundwork underneath your expertise. Most project managers are :( though, oh well.
That law makes people less willing to work given the erosion of benefits.
That, and the more temporary work becomes, the less someone wants to work - see Europe for an example.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
While you might have that "independence", its costs more than outweigh the benefits for most people.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
To be successful, you either have to really get technology (most IT "experts" are at best semi-competent) or really understand the business side of things (same problem). No fast training course can get that for you. You either have it or not. This is your tun-of-the-mill get-rich-quick rip-off.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Try clicking "Show/hide transcript" before you pretend your lack of flash capabilities means you are left without options.
Capitalism depends on the unrestricted flow of capital, equipment, and expertise. I'm always amused that employers are all for being able to hire and fire people at will, but piss all over themselves in fear when people demand to see what other employees make.
Semi-successful people hack hardware and software, but very successful people hack other people.
People who can't do their jobs in the work place won't be able to do their jobs as consultants and thus fail to build a network... this is fact. It's not for the retarded so to say. But... what benefits? The benefit of waking up to the grind each morning, the benefit of having some dumbshits who call themselves bosses tell you what to do and how to act 8-5 mon-fri, so you can come home and... I'll refrain from quoting fight club here :)
There's both sides to the coin, if you can't see the other one, stick to the one you know. Otherwise, I'd say it's an excellent first step to starting an IT based services / solutions business.
Oh, and you need more skills than just tech, marketing, presentation skills, a bit of accounting, an understanding of the legalities and pitfalls all go a long way towards making that chance a calculated success rather than luck based ("rare").
The perm side of the coin from what I've seen involves people being scared shitless for their jobs thinking that worrying is going to bring them job security and some also work a lot of free overtime as non-exempt full-timers (the majority of IT's workforce).
I do not agree. Most people below PhD-Level are unable to do reasonable design and architecture. And those are the things that kill expensive projects if done wrong. The "hands on" trained people I have seen turn out chaotic systems that become unmaintainable some times even before they are finished. Of course, it depends on the quality of the PhD. A good PhD teaches you humility, and that a systematic and clean approach is everything. A bad one is just a waste of time.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
I'm a contractor, I go in to solve their problems, US $90 an hour, when I'm done, I'm done. The Invoice is in the post.
Just wondering, how many billable hours do you have per week on average... How often do you sit around with no work?
:)
I'm not saying that contracting isn't a viable way of life, and I'm sure some people can make a lot of money that way.
But when taking stability into considerations and the stress of having to find new customers. Working at 50$ per hour + insurance and stuff is just as good as 90$.
Although, 90$ sounds better
Speaking as a Canadian who has worked as a government contractor:
* Twice the pay of an employee.
* Basic health paid for by government.
* Get to write off all kinds of hardware and software.
* Work from home and on my schedule (mostly).
Here's the kicker: as an employee, they could have laid me off with 2 weeks notice; as a contractor, their standard contract gave 4 weeks notice.
I've had one month off since July 2010, plus two weeks this Festive season just past.
For the first year I averaged 50 hours a week, since September 2011 I've done a straight 37.5 hours per week and no more.
I have however worked in IT in one way or another for over 20 years, any many of those was as a corporate slave.
Perhaps you have never understood what it is to have secure employment and to have the ability to plan long-term with more certainty than any consultancy would allow.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Become a Stripper / Exotic Dancer?
[ Narrator: Realizing that this is /. Fahrbot-bot prepared himself for many nights of unsettling dream imagery... ]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
No, I'm just pointing out that it only works well for a few people and that it doesn't compare well to more permanent employment.
I do see a few smug consultants thinking that everyone should be a second-class citizen(read: consultant/temp/contingent worker) just like themselves.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Repeat until you understand: 'There is no such thing as permanent employment.'
True, but there is a world of difference in what you can plan if the interval is 20 years vs 2 years vs 2 months.
At two months, you are always selling, which is a whole job unto itself (often a hated one) on top of the "real" job.
At two years, you never forget about the selling but you don't have to deal with it all the time. Makes it hard to make long term commitments though.
At 20 years, long term commitments are pretty easy and you can actually forget about selling. This can be a problem when it actually ends.
I was an IT consultant for many, many years and was quite successful. That being said, there are very few people who should, or even could, do it.
First, for most consulting gigs, you are constantly one day away from being unemployed. That's stress. Assuming you are very good at what you do, gigs can last for years. But some don't last long at all and some end quite abruptly for reasons outside of your control.
You have to have a great network for your next consulting gig. If you have to start looking from scratch after your current assignment ends, you will have long stretches between assignments.
You don't get paid for sick days, vacations, holidays. You don't have benefits. Your taxes are usually higher and there is no withholding so you must plan ahead. It takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline to be a successful consultant. The idea that "anyone can be a successful consultant" is complete bullshit.
I don't do that any more. The many years I spent as an independent consultant were fine -- but enough.
I spent 25 years in IT consultancy before starting my own business. The following are my tips:
start up some dopey service called CodeMyDesigns specializing in Drupal (or whatever the latest trend is), write a book on the subject, and then charge a flat rate 15-30k to develop a site that takes 40-80 hours to build (make sure to stretch those hours over a month or two and make sure to cover your ass for scope creep in the SOW at $162/hr).
It's easy to break 6 figures, you just need a niche market, a decent website, and personalized service better than your competitors.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
While they may be temporary, they're the rare breed that has the ability to function as a regular employer.
If a government contract job ends, one has a higher chance of picking up another vs the benefit-dodging part of the private sector.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The perm side of the coin from what I've seen involves people being scared shitless for their jobs thinking that worrying is going to bring them job security and some also work a lot of free overtime as non-exempt full-timers (the majority of IT's workforce).
While contractors have to by large worry even more since they have none of the benefits from being a regular employee but have all the costs and instabilities placed onto them.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
My generation was classified ads:
"For a free pamphlet on how to get rich quick, send $3 S&H to Bobalou." A few day later, customer receives envelope. Note reads "Place a classified add".
You may want to adjust for inflation.
Why would I want to repeat that myth?
A PhD means you've been trained to do academic research, and mapping that skill set to non-academic environments can be problematical at best (especially in CS). While you might assume that someone who has earned a PhD is more able to do things like "reasonable design and architecture", many employers will assume the opposite: that you live in a world of abstract algorithmics, and the mundane skills involved in producing real software are beneath you. Both assumptions are equally bogus.
True, but there is a world of difference in what you can plan if the interval is 20 years vs 2 years vs 2 months.
At two months, you are always selling, which is a whole job unto itself (often a hated one) on top of the "real" job.
At two years, you never forget about the selling but you don't have to deal with it all the time. Makes it hard to make long term commitments though.
At 20 years, long term commitments are pretty easy and you can actually forget about selling. This can be a problem when it actually ends.
But there is no such thing as an interval of 20 years, or even 2 years for that matter. At any point in time, even the very next day an employer can say to you "Sorry, your redundant". So to actually believe you have even 2 years of job security is a pure fantasy.
I have been a contractor for 15 years and have planned for 15 years because I know from practical experience that I have more job security doing what I do than any person who has what they call permanent employment. When I move to another contract I bring with me a wealth and bredth of experience, plus a guaranteed track record that practically ensures me a job, plus recent and repeated interview practice.... those with permanent employment are out of touch with interviewing, and only have a stagnant and unchanging level of experience where they have sat there doing the same thing day in and day out for years.
The simple fact is, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, its the tools and experience you build TODAY which will give you more security than some misguided belief that your permanency equates to anything.
Even take redundancy.... people may argue that if they are made redundant they are given a payout which gives them time to find a new job... sorry to burst your bubble, but I earn 3 times what permanents earn, I have already built up that buffer several times over, so I have already put a contingency in place in the event I am without work (something that has only happened a total of about 8 weeks in 15 years), while those who foolishly believe they are "safe" don't have any contingency in place at all, nor have the funds available to put one in to cover them in the worst case.
I am staggered that people cannot see this? thought meta-thinking about it, I guess for those who ARE permanent, they have to believe that being permanent is the best option, otherwise they would be admitting to themselves they are not achieving their own potential and are purposely undercutting themselves. So it is easier to generate justifications for them staying where they are, than actually admitting they lack the confidence and belief in their own skills that they would be able to maintain a contracting lifestyle.
Don't get me wrong... there is nothing wrong with working a straight 9-to-5 if thats what suits you... but please don't try to convince yourself there is any more safety in it than there is in contract work.... and certanily don't try to convince yourself that you even have an interval of 2 years in which you can plan.... Do you know how many people will be fired tomorrow who thought they had 2 years? EVERYBODY thinks they have time right up until they are put off, and yuo have absolutely no control over how/when/where this will happen. So if you think its better to just cilng to the belief you are safe rather than actually developing your career around overcoming any possible outcome IN ADVANCE.... my hat off to you!
While contractors have to by large worry even more since they have none of the benefits from being a regular employee but have all the costs and instabilities placed onto them.
Really?
And why do contractors have to worry at all? I know what I am capable of and I have a proven track record across many different jobs, employers, industries and tasks that back that up. I know from historical reference that downtime has been at a minimum and I have planned in advance to cope with any downtime (using the significantly higher compensation to do so). I dont have anything I need to worry about and haven't been worried for 15 years.
And this has been through 2 major cycles, including major crisis such as Y2K and the GFC and it hasn't changed.
I compare this to my permanent friends who don't have any possibility of overcoming hurdles because they have clung to that permanency like it was their life raft, watched them suffer when the companies they were stuck with made them redundant, watched them dance when they got their 4 weeks PAID holidays (I take 8 weeks a year and still get paid more), and seen how miserable and scared they are of losing their jobs.
So I am not sure where you get this idea that contractors are worried. They know the lay of the land, they know the situation, they have prepared in advance, they have contingencies and they are enjoying their lifestyle because they PLAN for their jobs to turn over, unlike permanents who are terrified of it happening and don't (or can't) plan for that outcome
On fast development projects, a large body of the contractors get to do work, collect the bonus, and then move on leaving a pile of crap for the employees to maintain and actually work to make functional.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Clearly you are a corporate worker who likes to punch in at 8am, take lunch for 60 minutes at noon and punch out at 5pm. That's why you don't understand consulting and call it temporary work. That's good though...gives businesses plenty of reason to replace you with consutants who cost more, but take less time and get it done right, knowing they won't be back if they don't...as opposed to clock puncher like you who figures whatever isn't done will be there tomorrow or the next day, No need to rush, it's job security, right? Ha ha ha ha...consultants are laughing all the way to the bank. And as someone who has seen the last two recessions and the bubble burst as a consultant - successfully - I can easily attest that you get out what you put in. Stick to your guns...I will be replacing you with one of my team pretty soon. kiss-kiss
That job security also brings in benefits of scale which do not come with consultancy. That's where your high pay ends up going - along with a more pronounced instability that makes Fukushima or Chernobyl look solid as a rock.
If you want to think of it as an underpayment, you're forgetting about the security and scale of a regular, non-fixed-term job.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
While that is true, the benefit packages are for people that have "permanent" position and not for "temp" workers.
Permanent can be as volatile as the existence of the company, but allowing the HR to get away without paying someone a "benefit package" while doing the same amount of work is not okay.
There's also a huge difference between contract work and being a consultant, to those of you who don't understand anything more than the corporate IT job. Been on both sides of the fence in my 20+ years and understand the thought processes each distinct way. Being a contract worker is temporary by definition (extension of contracts indefinitely is still temporary because it has an end date, no matter how nebulous), being a consultant is doing repeated temporary work in many places and even many times. Sure I can help you set your new office, and another client's new office....and you pay me to do that project and so does the next client. The skill of consulting is having many, many of those projects strung together to make it continuous work. But that's okay - corporate workers are needed too. Someone who is there every day, knows the intricacies....accepts less pay, steady hours, lunch....there are distinctions. I make no claim one is better than the other...I prefer consulting and more exposure and being the 'hero' when a client needs it.
Contractors like the kind he/she would be. If you have skills (non-technical, too - even moreso) you don't worry so much about it. You work hard and you network and you do the work that those who hate consultants do - better. Then you replace those people because they cannot embrace change, cannot grow unless it is at someone else's expense.
I don't want your job, corporate-person who thinks consultants are the bane of the industry...but I will take it from your ineptitude and give it to one of my staff who can do it better and make more money than you doing it in less time.
Sounds like SAP.
Permanency and economies of scale make for mighty convincing arguments. That, and contract workers are generally worse off than regular employees - with exceptions such as yourself - since they are used to dodge some law instead of provide the flexibility claimed to a worker.
For each one of you, there are more people that end up on the wrong end of contract employment. Now if Right to Work applied to contractors (read: you weren't forced to be a contractor but could choose to be a directly hired FT worker) you might have a point
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I know when I was contracting (since 2000 until mid 2009, now I build my own software) I couldn't imagine myself ever wanting to get a 'permanent job' ever again. It would have been a huge step backwards for me, but of-course I was in a circle of other contractors but at work it always looked to me that permanent employees were sort of jealous of the contractors and wanted to switch to contracting positions.
And why does it work so well to be a contract employee in Canada? Because the government takes care of workers of all stripes, permanent or not. In the states, contract workers who are fired on the drop of a hat are left to scramble to get health insurance and other basic necessities that other countries consider to be critical functions and civil rights.
In other words, the runaway capitalism in the US has made it impossible for most people to get by as contract employees. It also has given more power to the employers because they hold the trajectory of the employees' lives in their hands. Workers who go without health insurance for a single day in the US can see huge increases in premiums and decreases in coverage as a penalty for it - that translates directly to power for the employer.
And now you want to strip the employees of what few rights they have left. You want to make it easier for employers to can employees without fear of anything resembling recourse. You are preaching that this somehow brings freedom when it really leads to serfdom. You are aiming to concentrate more power in the hands of fewer, while claiming the opposite in spite of reality.
In other words, you are aiming to bring fascism to the people.
Some are more permanent than others, though.
You resent that job security ever existed and wish to see it gone because you didn't have it. Pity that you never got to see a benefit.
Yet the laugh that permanent workers have is when the come out ahead for everything despite having a lower initial paycheck. That, and permanent workers are the last to go while consultants, temps and other second-class citizens are considered cannon fodder.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Step 1 of how to be a successful consultant... learn how to spell check your articles before you post them and seek being Slashdotted.
Honestly I lost track of the number of spelling errors after 15 and and could read no further. I'm not one to pick on people's typing skills normally, and in fact mine is terrible. But if I were attempting to sound like an authority and seeking this kind of attention, I'd make sure my sentences could be read without the reader assuming I was an idiot.
Seriously. Posts like that make me smile. Stuck in their ways curmudgeons in IT pay my bills more than anything else.
Totally accurate and insightful, and only moderated 1... I too have had both "permanent" jobs, and consulting, and right now I am doing consulting. And I am busy as hell. Oh, and I am 45, so no one is supposed to be giving me a job... The fact is that anyone can come up with reasons NOT to do something. I am doing something that not only suits me, but pays me well.
But the fact that you want to destroy any sort of job security is the same as wanting to take a job.
That and you assume that someone that wants a corporate job isn't competent. Not everyone is meant for consultancy while not everyone wants to be attached to a corporation.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
You can buy "benefit packages." How long do you have to get extra payment to pay for it? Generally about $300 a month will cover most benefits at reasonable companies. Less for the crap some places are trying to pass off as insurance.
Why would I want to repeat that myth?
I thought I was "Living the dream" but I guess I was living the myth. I have had several permanent jobs. Read that again, and you will figure it out.
Some are more permanent than others, though.
So you work in government?
No, I'm just pointing out that it only works well for a few people and that it doesn't compare well to more permanent employment.
You got that right! Although, not the way you intended. There is a reason people who leave the traditional job market for consultancy rarely go back. (I did twice because I hate sales, but I couldn't stay. I hated "regular job" more.)
No, no...we consultants want you right where you are. :-) You are easy to replace when discussing your inability to work with the rest of your team with that attitude. We're good with that - keep it up.
What? Are you nuts? I don't want to replace him. I just want to fix the problems around him and move on. If I wanted that kind of job, I would have one.
Permanency and economies of scale make for mighty convincing arguments. That, and contract workers are generally worse off than regular employees - with exceptions such as yourself - since they are used to dodge some law instead of provide the flexibility claimed to a worker.
Only contractors that are faux employees. I don't do that. It sucks. I am job based, and have a handful of clients that I juggle. If one gets to be a problem, no problem.
No, I am in the next batch of contractors hired to clean up the mess. :) I love it too. Fun to be the hero. :) Then I move on and leave the dull maintenance to the employees.
Speaking as a Canadian who has worked as a government contractor:
* Twice the pay of an employee. * Basic health paid for by government. * Get to write off all kinds of hardware and software. * Work from home and on my schedule (mostly).
Here's the kicker: as an employee, they could have laid me off with 2 weeks notice; as a contractor, their standard contract gave 4 weeks notice.
Quoting you as non-ac just to give it more prominence. And yes, contractors are more likely to actually understand contracts as we deal with them more.
A contractor is brought in to do a specific task for a (usually) predetermined amount of time. A consultant is brought in to asses an organization, develop a solution based on that assessment, and hire contractors to come in and implement their specific tasks for a predetermined amount of time. A contractor usually works a shift and as such can't have any other work while they are on a contract. A consultant can have multiple clients simultaneously and may not visit the client regularly if the job does not require it. A contractor is usually a guy looking for permanent work but taking contract work while he looks. A consultant is someone who was motivated to go beyond a 9 to 5 job and courageous enough to take that step of faith (in themselves) to forgo the regular paycheck for more latitude and freedom. You sound very condescending towards these individuals and that is more an indication of your insecurity than it is of their job stability. For the record. I have toyed with becoming a consultant for many years. I have my DBA and have done some work for various companies but find I don't have the stomach for it. I wish I did.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Trust me - benefits cost a lot more than $300 a month. The benefits that I pay for my $35k entry level employee add up to about $14k per year on top of the salary - and about half of that scales linearly with salary. Benefits include retirement (10% of salary), health insurance (>$300 a month even for an individual if you're providing decent insurance), contributions to social security and medicare, disability insurance, life insurance, unemployment insurance, and a couple of others that I am sure I'm forgetting right now. While you're obviously correct that you can buy 'benefit packages', the value of the benefits at a company that treats it's workers (even the entry level ones) well is significant. No doubt you can include these costs in consulting fees, but $300 a month it is not.
Just wondering, how many billable hours do you have per week on average...
Between 20 and 80. I try for 20 and usually miss. If I get 25 hours each week, I make my nut.
How often do you sit around with no work?
Only when I can fight, plead, and beg for time away. Although there was one week in December where I only billed out about 15 hours.
to people who can't get day jobs.
PHD is over kill for most IT jobs and one can be a trun off to HR as you come off as needing a very high pay.
IT needs more hand on learning not years in the class room and more tech schools.
The best part about being a consultant is that you never ... ever ... never ever ... have to deal with HR. Makes me smile just saying it. :)
They do? It would seem it's more like they'd just say "Sorry, I'm not going to tell you". They might get antsy if employees start talking about it among themselves, but they can't really forbid it. Best they can do is create a "silo" culture where developers don't talk; but that's rather cutting off their nose to spite their face.
You are confusing "what it costs you" to "what it costs to replace." The costs to replace "social security and medicare, disability insurance, life insurance, unemployment insurance, and a couple of others" is self employment insurance. And reasonable health insurance in Texas can be had for under $500 a month, half of which you pay anyway, so net of $250. More of your expenses are write offs, so that offsets some as well. Now in some places, those numbers are very different... But I live in Texas, so that is what I know.
The problem is that it discourages work by removing a benefit obtained through employment.
Now if you want to make it so that you aren't forced to be a contract worker as a condition of employment (like Right to Work), then you might have a point.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
What I am finding more and more often as a contractor, are agencies that come to me saying they have an amazing PERMANENT position for me....
So I hear them out, I listen to the rate being significantly lower than what I am on as a contractor and then being a permanent position I ask them ONE SIMPLE QUESTION: "So how do they plan to develop me as a permanent employee over the next 5 years?"
I get utter silence!!!
It seems there is now this growing trend where bosses/companies are putting out job tenders for permanent staff, but in reality they are only looking for "cheap contractors". They have absolutely no plans to develop these people, which means there is a high likelihood that in a few years time they will be made redundant. For many bosses out there, "the bottom line" is all important ot them, so much so they have no problems lying to employees in order to trap them in underpaid jobs. When the time comes to fire them, "Sorry mate, its just business". What do they care? They got their 2 years at a pittance, got the job done they wanted to and suffer no ill effects from doing this. So why would they not believe that sucha process is not only acceptable but cost effective?
When entering into permanent employment, you have absolutely no idea what the boss has in mind, or how long he intends to keep you, and anyone can pat you on the head and give you promises of what is in store... but how many full time employees have you heard say "they promised they would train me but it just never happened"? too many to count!
With a contract I know exactly where I stand, I know exactly how long I am there, I know that my work is what will give me an extension if one has the potential to be available, I know when to start looking for other work, I know the "worst case" period in which I may need to get a new job and there is absolutely no hollow promises that an employer can make to try to entice me because none of that is expected in contracting. The process itself eliminates ALL potential pitfalls that go with permanent employment.
Ask yourself this one simple question.... If you were to ask your boss to sign a declaration that stated you were to be paid out for a FULL 2 years in the event you are terminated at any point during that time, what their answer would be? Its a permanent job after all, so surely thety shouldn't have a problem doing this right? But in reality they would laugh at you and think you are a slobbering moron and tell you that it would be stupid for them to do something like that...
Why? Because job security is a delusion! And there is absolute, undeniable and unequivical proof.
Even contracts have outs, as does all permanent employment. There are no guarantees and sadly employers don't even have to follow any MORAL guidelines, only those which could potentially land them in trouble. They don't have to follow through on what they "promise" up front, they don't have to do you any favours at all, they don't have to keep employing you and they can tell you whatever you need to hear to make sure you give them what they need... because by the time they have to actually follow through, they already have the work they need and there is no incentive for them to do anything.
If you work for a government contractor, anything requiring a security clearance is about the only good way to do temporary work - since it has more security than (about) any other form.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Interesting to see a lot of the pro-consultant side go AC since they can't put even a proper pseudonym.
That, and they're the ones who think that it's fine to destroy job security for their envy of not ever having it.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Re: you're a frustrated high school student.
.
Hey, I resent that! Don't lump those idiotic ACs in with frustrated high-school students! That insults those of us who happen to still be in HS as students!!
;>)
I am a frustrated high-school student, yet I
1) Do not post as AC, but instead have a registered login account.
2) Don't go around saying things about other people that I do not know are true.
3) I do back up what I say usually with pointers to Wikipedia articles (e.g. "see the article about unfunded mandates if you want to know what it's like to go out on a date with a man who doesn't have a full enough wallet" from this comment of mine)
the end of pre-existing conditions / people being droped after getting sick is good
Small point of order: The reason for that minor (at best) "fear" is because it causes a shitload of internal strife, a massive amount of resentment between employees, and overall, unless the salary is structured and/or standardized, it wrecks morale. Well, at least it does all of this for anyone not making the biggest salary in the department.
Incidentally, the opposite of being able to hire/fire at will is being able to apply-for/leave a job at will. That is, you're not forced to sign a contract that says you have to stay - you can find/get a better job and leave your current employer no matter what, and at any time.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
While there might be a rare chance for someone to do well as a consultant, such a life does not do well for the greater part.
I had a very successful consulting practise between 2001 and 2005 but the market shifted drastically during the latter part of 2005 and only seemed to worsen. I closed shop and attempted to become an employee at a couple of corporations only to be laid-off twice when management began cost-cutting to boost profit margins. I was always working as a consultant (12 months every year, no time for vacation) but after trying to be an employee my employed-time versus unemployed-time has reached 50/50; not a promising statistic. At least as a prostitute (consultant) I was paid well so had I been single I could have easily lived for 5 years without working after the downturn. Even today, years later, all I hear from the other person is "money, money, money."
tech schools need more respect and CS is not IT and CS is not helpdesk, sysadmin, networking. I say at most a 2 year degree + on going NON degree IT classes.
BA/BS and higher is pushing more into the theory side of stuff While lacking skills.
I started my IT career doing in house IT. That gig lasted for three years and then I began consulting in the employ of a former KPMG guy who started his practice in 1989. I began working for him just in 2000, more or less as the dotcom bubble was beginning to burst. He had a very diverse client base and we were able to ride out the down turn. In 2007 I was tired of the feast or famine culture of small business consulting so I went to work full time for one of our clients. After three years there, I moved to my current job. I now work for a medium sized (~2000 employees, ~$500 million market cap) consulting (non-IT) company as an in house IT resource.
My experience as a consultant shaped my attitude towards professional development and IT. I following insights still stick with me.
Good, competent IT talent is hard to come by. At my first consulting job working for the KPMG guy, we were often times the third or fourth consulting company called in. Our rates were high because my boss was extremely good at what he did and we were able to fix the problems that others left behind. After spending a good 7 years cleaning up other people's messes and dealing with incompetent vendors, I became a bit jaded.
More important than pure IT talent is the ability to explain to clients why they can benefit from technology. Most companies do not want to spend on IT. It is the very bottom of the spending priority list. Therefore I had to learn all of that PM garbage. Project plans, budgets, ROI, leases, CapEx, OpEx... blah blah blah
Vendor management. Either vendors that we brought in, or vendors who clients already had engagements with. More PM stuff here... defining project scope, deliverables, contracts, etc
Work as a Project - This is the most important one because it has been the most valuable for me. IT works in cycles. It takes so long to implement a system. So long to migrate an application. So long to troubleshoot an issue. Etc, etc. You have to maintain an eye on the job boards and understand what the projects you are doing are worth. What's it worth to be a Linux admin? How about one with Netapp experience? What about an Exchange guy with experience migrating to and/or from Lotus Notes? Virtualizing an entire data center? Smart enough to know when to, and when not to, virtualize a massive SQL server? Every skill you have is worth something. Every success you have had increases your net worth. As a consultant, you understand what you are worth.
Knowing your worth gives you as much security as you are ever going to get in this market. It gives you the ability to look your employer in the eye and say, "Pay me. There are plenty of other opportunities out there. This is what I am worth. This is my proven track record of success, and I will be happy to continue to help you move your company forward, if you PAY ME WHAT I'M WORTH."
In fifteen years I've gone from a part time IT gig while going to college, to dropping out of college, consulting and now running a couple of massive applications that generate close to $100 million in revenue a year. IT really is a discipline in which success is rewarded, and failure is punished.... albeit perhaps not as much as it should be, given the shortage of competent IT people. I have done it by approaching the job one project at a time, like a consultant would.
I should clarify: I was talking about an engineering PhD in CS, i.e. you not only designed something new and complex, you built it and operated it to demonstrate a new scientific fact in a process lasting several years. Then you described it well. This gives you, among other things, a real appreciations for mundane things like implementing algorithms in a context that works to produce something or creating documentation that describes what you did well.
I do not think purely scientific PhDs in CS have any worth, with some rare exceptions that are typically mathematics PhDs in disguise.
As to the employers, why do you think so many IT projects fail? It is typically not mis-management, it is engineering failure. (The fault of management is often only to not have acquired qualified personnel.) Yes, feature creep is an issue, and it is an engineering failure. You do engineer for fixed specifications, not for variable ones. Yes, time pressure is also an issue, but again, it is an engineering failure to bow to it. A good engineer takes the time it needs or tells the manager that it cannot be built in the time available. A bad engineer just tries to do it and fails. I have seen several large projects fail because of bad architecture, bad design, bad use of algorithms and bad documentation. Most non-PHD computer scientists cannot write useful documentation! If you have a PhD, you went through the painful process of having your papers rejected repeatedly because the reviewers did not understand them. Nothing teaches you clear and compact writing like that. And you went through the experience of having to modify and maintain your own messy code, typically with several overall re-designs and nobody to blame for it but yourself. And you saw that if you use the wrong algorithm or implemented it badly with regard to the problem you are trying to solve, things are getting painful and may not even work at all, even if the design looked good on paper. You also learn to avoid unnecessary complexity at all cost, in architecture, design, code and documentation, because you have made the experience that complexity kills your control over what you try to build and describe.
So, yes, a good engineering PhD in CS is very, very valuable and there is not really anything that can replace it. There is a small handful of geniuses that managed to acquire the same insights and experiences by themselves and sheer luck, but they are much, much rarer than the already rare people with good engineering PhDs in CS.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Incidentally, the opposite of being able to hire/fire at will is being able to apply-for/leave a job at will. That is, you're not forced to sign a contract that says you have to stay - you can find/get a better job and leave your current employer no matter what, and at any time.
Opposite? Really? A fair contract gives the employee and employer the same notice period. If you want to be able to get rid of me overnight, I demand the right to leave overnight if something better comes up. So to me these are the same thing, not opposites....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Liar! From your username it's clear you're an active FBI agent!!
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Not in the us, it's the only lawless place, there's no health care either, south Africa is at the same level
It's called the fourth world, callin it third world would be unfair to the third world
It's savage
The best part about being a consultant is that you never ... ever ... never ever ... have to deal with HR. Makes me smile just saying it. :)
There's a lot of very nice young women in HR.
Except in IT, where a lot of companies use HR and other internal functions as the dumping ground for post-maternity-leave female employees when project managers (erroneously) assume that their skills are out-of-date so refuse to take them on....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
He says you have skills that someone can use, and you have to find it and market it. Yeah, sure, genius, we already knew that!! HOW do we find out those skills and HOW do we market them?
Instead, he just tells us working in a cubicle isn't for everybody. Sheer brilliance.
Being a niche specialist is great, but only if you pick winners. Otherwise, your deep knowledge of loser technology will make you totally obsolete. For any winning technology, there are probably 10 losers. Knowing which to pick is difficult. You will always be chasing something new, and you won't get deep knowledge. So I'm not loving this random guy's advice.
The simple fact is, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, its the tools and experience you build TODAY which will give you more security than some misguided belief that your permanency equates to anything.
Although you have it 100% absolutely correct, you make the mistake of drastically overstating the odds of a 9-to-5 declaring you redundant "tomorrow". Yes, it can happen. Yes, it will happen to most of us at least a few times in our lives. Yes, it might even happen after a week on the job; but if you make it a week, you'll probably make it to your 6-month review. And if you make it past your six month review (which you will if you don't completely suck), they won't just randomly get rid of you unless their market heads South.
then skimmed the extract. Pretty much what I thought, the usual, "Increase your skills, talk to people, make yourself indispensable."
If I wanted that job, I'll stay where I'm at. Considering what I get paid and the amount of work I do, you'd think I should be the one behind the big desk making the decisions.
Instead, because I'm so "valuable" and have so many "skillsets", I get more and more cruft dumped on me, can never get promoted because I'm good at what I do and private employers wouldn't touch me if I was last person on the planet because I speak the truth and want to accomplish something.
I tell everyone I meet, when it comes up in conversation, if you need someone to solve your problems, give me a shout or, if you have a job opening, keep me in mind. So far, after years and years of this, not one single person has ever come back to me.
I continually tell people where I work about needing to clearly and concisely communicate, how projects are failing left and right because of the lack of communication and organization, how the drive to constantly "innovate" and be "on the cutting edge" is making us look more and more incompetent every day because we can't do the simple things, let alone shoot for the moon, but no one listens.
If people aren't listening to me now, people who know me and what a great job I do, what makes you think someone who doesn't know me will listen to what I say?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
But there is no such thing as an interval of 20 years, or even 2 years for that matter. At any point in time, even the very next day an employer can say to you "Sorry, your redundant". So to actually believe you have even 2 years of job security is a pure fantasy.
If you are at a company older than 5 years, growing at 20% per year or higher, and you are one of the drivers of the growth, then I would say you have close to 99% chance of keeping your job. If you are working for a company that is down 20% year over year then start looking now and do not make the same mistake again. Treat the interview process as you interviewing the company. You cannot get it right every time, but most people do not even try to figure out the trajectory a prospective employer is on. Simply looking at the big number on the check and not realistically considering how likely the company will be able to continue writing it will cost big in the long run.
and also, most of that comes out as "taxes" , 'social security and medicare, disability insurance, life insurance, unemployment insurance', you would pay some portion of for any employee. the actual $ amounts change but the % is set. this is nice " Benefits include retirement (10% of salary)" but for someone making 35k/yr, is it really going to provide meaningful retirement when they are 65-70 ? ( hint : no). And, "health insurance (>$300 a month even for an individual if you're providing decent insurance)" Which in the USA, insurance is just crazy. single payer FTW. granted there is a cost for insurance. granted it is generally cheaper for the end user to buy from company than source on their own. But by and large, all of these , you would provide for any/all employees. someone freelance would pay the above taxes in some form or another, could make 2-5x the 35k so the 10% retirement would be a bigger $ amount.
What do you mean permanency?
The days of 'job for life' have been over since at least the early 80's.
Companies are not loyal to employees, you are disposable. And, if you are a regular W2 eimployee, you too better be prepared to jump jobs every 3-4 years or so, if you want to increase your $$ and position.
My thoughts are...if you have the job security of a contractor, you might as well earn the $$$$ and get the tax benefits of being a contractor.
It isn't that hard, or that difficult. Sure, it requires a bit of paperwork and business thought and planning, getting a cpa is needed, but you figure all that into your BILL RATE.
If you're billing $65-$120 which is easily reasonable, you can sock money way for your routine health care (HSA which is not use or lose like FSA)...you can write off most anything under the sun related to your work, and if you do things smart, like form a "S" corp, you can save money by not having to pay employment taxes (SS, Medicare) on every dollar you bill for.
And you can still easily net $100K take home a year which isn't bad at all....
Depending on your field of expertise you can readily make much more than that.
This is especially true if you can get into Govt. contracting...you get the contractor pay, and you get the LONG term job...many of those run a decade or more.
But seriously, don't kid yourself that a normal W2 job today has any permanence.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You know, the much freer and more capitalist paradise libertarians often speak of?
Well, people back then who manned the factories weren't "contractors". It was a job
The more capitalist a society is, the less contracting there will be, because a permanent job represents efficiency and productivity - a business is efficient enough that it knows there's always productive work, thus they hire a permanent worker instead of a contractor.
Ford was willing to pay double the market rate to keep people working at his jobs. Most factory workers in China aren't contractors either.
No self respecting capitalism loving libertarian would support more contracting.
You just stated the benefit in and of itself as the only solution. "unless the salary is structured and/or standardized, it wrecks morale." Yes. Perfect. That is precisely why in other countries it is common for people to talk about it, if the company tries to screw some of it's employees they'll find out the company is not instituting a standard and fair pay structure, therefore the company ends up being forced to do so which means people are paid fairly. You don't have one dude making twice what everyone else does just because he negotiated better, in negotiations he's told simply to go blow because they aren't going to pay him twice what others are paid who do the same work, and further they aren't going to offer someone half what everyone else is making because they think they can get away with it.
This increases competition too because people throughout the industry know what people are making around other companies, so if one company tries to offer half what other companies are paying, they won't be able to hire people, and effectively companies have to compete for talent. What an idea! Forcing companies to compete for us rather than against us! Considering we're the majority (the workers, actually doing the productive work for our GDP and collective countries value) and they're the minority, I think what benefits us is better than that which benefits them. Granted if it becomes unbalanced benefiting us as too much of their expense it's no longer good for us because it harms them, but as it stands with the ridiculous profits of corporations these days, they would have to dig *REALLY* deep to see any harm that would start negatively affecting employees (employees n. : the citizenry of the nation).
You are a complete dick. I've done both and probably make 3x what you make in a perm position. I also have about 3 years of living expenses saved azzhole.
Post on /. and pretend you are smart and informed and mature and a know-it-all apos and smart. That will land you the job of your dreams.
Not only do you spend a lot of time selling your self, the consulting market is highly niched.
If your skill set is not what they want, you can't ask for top dollar. That, and software technology has a shorter half life than Elvis paraphernalia. Just look at the turn over of companies and tech.
Selling yourself is a tough thing as your skill set might be required far away, so you have to add in the cost of travel and living out of a suitcase in a hotel. Also, many business people have absolutely no concept of how much something costs. Customized software development is very time intensive. Just because you can buy a copy of MS Word for $600 does not mean that all software costs that little. Either the business person has no idea of how much it costs, or wants you dirt cheap. He is better off dealing with Indian off shore labor.
Training is a saturated field. Most community colleges in a major metropolitan area offer enough classes to get a good start for their staff to get started. More advanced classes are taught at boot camps which have the economy of scale to teach Windows Presentation Foundation in C# or whatever a client might need. You will spend a lot of time preparing your course material, so it had better be highly specialized to make it worth it. That and online classes will eat your lunch.
Janet Ruhl's "How to Succeed as an Independent Computer Consultant" says that you should look for repeat business. By the time you get repeat business, they want someone on staff to work for them.
Writing software != Selling software != Selling consulting
Casteism
Re: from your username...
... Repent in leisure!
:>(
Name yourself in haste..,
.
Yeaaaaah, I goofed in picking my nick when I signed up and went with my nutty best friend's lemony-snickety nickname for me over the last year. I hadn't fully thought it out, and it sounded cute and funny. Is there any way to request just a change in your name without a change in your ID nubmer or your post identifications? Or do I just start over again with a new nick and build up from there???
Re: from your username...
:>(
... Repent in leisure!
Name yourself in haste..,
.
Yeaaaaah, I goofed in picking my nick when I signed up and went with my nutty best friend's lemony-snickety nickname for me over the last year. I hadn't fully thought it out, and it sounded cute and funny. Is there any way to request just a change in your name without a change in your ID nubmer or your post identifications? Or do I just start over again with a new nick and build up from there???
Re: from your username . . .
:>(
... Repent in leisure!
Name yourself in haste..,
.
Yeaaaaahhh, I goofed in picking my nick when I signed up and went with my nutty best friend's lemony-snickety nickname for me over the last year. I hadn't fully thought it out, and it sounded cute and funny. Is there any way to request just a change in your name without a change in your ID nubmer or your post identifications? Or do I just start over again with a new nick and build up from there???
Have to post AC because I moderated this thread:(
You didn't goof up on your name. It's funny... plus it made me think you were mocking "girlintraining", or perhaps her young lover... which cracked me up until I saw that you are in HS. And no, I'm not in the HS age group. Old enough to be your father, etc.
Now, why in the world are you frustrated? If you're frustrated in high school, you really are doing it wrong. What's there to be frustrated about? Other than having to ask permission to use the restroom and being forced to listen to teachers who are likely less intelligent than you.
Some people have asked the inevitable 'HOW' question, as Matt doesn't really get into the specifics of making the leap in the video. Matt posted a follow-up on his blog (I'm his editor), which might be of use to this conversation as well: Four Requirements for Independence". He goes into the calculations needed for determining when and how to go independent (burn rate, replacement income, etc.). Curious to hear if the consultants here think it's enough to go on, or simplifies things too much.
screw some of it's employees
"its".
If you are at a company older than 5 years, growing at 20% per year or higher, and you are one of the drivers of the growth, then I would say you have close to 99% chance of keeping your job.
What you have just said has absolutely NOTHING to do with permanent work and everything to do with the NATURE of the work. I have been in exactly the same situation you are mentioning but as a contractor, hence it isn't a contracting/permanent issue which was the topic we were talking about.
The topic we were discussing was about "general employment", not about highly specialized and nano-specific "one off" cases designed to try and make permanent employment look better or feel more secure, and surely the fact you had to find such a specialized instance that didn't in any way relate to the mode of employment just proves my point.
But think about this... if you are permanent, then you don't have a choice or a say in the direction you are going, so if that growth changes, or they decide to take a different direction then you are stuck going in that direction or forced to change jobs which is always more difficult for a permanent because they specialize to do their current job, not any job. So you could go from having a 99% change of keeping your job to a 5% change in a short time, without any say or any control. As a contractor, YOU are in control of the direction you take, and moving from one job to another is second nature because you specialize in being suitable for a variety of jobs, which allows you to pick when to jump on board (for those highly specialized circumstances you mention), and when to leave to find another highly specialized circumstance.
When you start permanent employment, you are taken on with the "anticipation" of the work being there in the future, but based on the current market. But as a contractor you are taken on for a specific task which is occurring IN the current market. Which do you think they are more likely to "get right"? What is immediately right in front of their face in the short term? And then reassessed every 6-12 months on a "case-by-case" basis? Or some 5 year future estimated projection based on a market that will be completely different at the end of it? So you talk about "realistically considering how likely the company will be able to continue writing it"... when reality is that they are more realistic about paying contractors in the here and now, when they know how long, how much and in what market, than they are about paying permanent staff with an unknown time frame, with shifting goal posts and trying to use the current market to predict what it will be like in years time. Is that not easy to see?
Its the reason why we came up with agile development... its one think to try and estimate work over a short period of time, but to try and estimate work over a much longer period of time is next to impossible. Its far more effective to bite off small chunks, estimate, re-visit, which is exactly the point of a contractor.
I have seen and worked for so many companies across all sectors, and one thing that keeps standing out to me is the degree of change that occurs in those companies. People who were permanent who thought their jobs were safe left, the nature of the businesses changed, sometimes so significantly that by the time I left the contract, it was a completely different environment to what I had started. The ironic thing was that the only consistent thing out of all of it was me consistently getting contract after contract, doing the work, solving the problem, moving on and doing it again. Companies were bought out, changed their name, split up, reformed, got new management, but I was still there doing what I do, year in and year out.
So here we are 15 years later... I have had to change most of the company names on my resume because they have changed (including government departments who have reformed in that time), add extra meta data to explain why the managers on those contracts no longer work for that company
Be a good salesman. Being good looking doesn't hurt either. Good looking people have an easier time selling.
Second step: Maintain the persona of a successful, high-tech, expert in whatever field the customer needs, regardless of whether you really know much about it at all. Generally all this requires is a bunch of buzz words, a fake smile, and an expensive suit. Maybe an expensive car, even if you have to rent it when you go to see clients.
If you are a good salesman and maintain a successful persona then you don't actually have to be that damned good at what you do. The people who hired you don't know for sure what they should be getting. That is why they hired a slick salesman in an expensive suit. And most importantly, perception is everything. Management will convince themselves that your project is successful regardless of how much their workers complain because said management does not want to admit that they could be fooled by a smooth talking jackass in a suit.
Yep, been there, seen that far too many times.
This guy is just working on his persona.
P.S. Sure there are plenty of honest, hard-working folks who work on a contract basis. But without the above "qualities" they will always be wondering why they don't get the big, high-dollar jobs.
Permanent Employment. --- That is the discussion.