> Working for a consulting company is an entirely different ball of wax.
This is absolutely true: being just one guy has a whole different set of dynamics than being a firm. One of the nice things about being solo is that overhead is generally so much less, but your customers don't see much depth for backup. I'm sure the list of difference is long and distinguished...
Steve
P.S. - I'd love to know what else you disagree with, either here or privately.
> The funny thing is that the consultants with the poorest technical skills make the most money (charge the most hours) - at least in the short ter
This is sadly true, and these awful people are the bane of good, honest consultants.
And I hope nobody gets the impression that technical skills don't matter: they absolutely do. I am fiercely technical and use my tech every day for my customers. That's the reason I solve problems.
But the reason I keep customers is because of my service skills.
> From years of experience consulting and running consulting groups, one of the biggest hurdles tech people need to come to grips with when entering consulting is the balance between elegant code and timely completion of projects.
Yes, this is very, very hard for me. I take a lot of pride in my code, and it's not easy to say "it's good enough" and let it go. More often than not I expand on an interesting area on my own time just so that I have code I can be proud of, but doesn't make the customer pay for a masterpiece.
> If people don't have to pay for small things, then they bother you with them all the time, and in aggregate, waste a lot of your day.
Your point is very well taken, and a consultant does have to manage customer expectations. If they know that they never pay for little stuff, it creates one set of incentives that's really bad for you. But if they know that everything is charged, it creates another set that's bad in a different way.
> I find your choice of words poor and I disagree with your classification
Yours is a fair objection: I work in my own little space, and I'm not any kind of authority on the types of business relations that one can have with customers. I have always seen "contracting" as short-term project-work, and "consulting" as more long-term work, but if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
> Customers will abuse your good nature to no end if you do freebies.
I've not found this to be the case: the consultant gets to pick what he does and does not charge for, and if customers know that every time they call you, they get billed for 5 minutes, it doesn't create an entirely friendly environment. I think that a certain amount of "freebies" is part of maintaining a good customer relationship: I get paid for my time, but I don't nickel-and-dime my customer to death.
My point on the Warm Fuzzy Feeling is that if your customer doesn't have it about you (they don't like you, find you hard to work with, etc.), it doesn't matter much about how good your technical skills are. New consultants usually focus on the technical skills and forget the people skills, and this doesn't make for good, long-term customer relationships.
I'm much more on the technical side of consulting, and the only "marketing" I do is publishing original, technical content. Mainly I write C code all day, though I'm sure that this slashdot post is seen as "marketing"...
Slashdot Mirror
Oh yah?
http://regex.info/blog/2006-09-15/248
Unixwiz.net Tech Tip: An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes
Have customer sign when you leave and arrive? Is this kindergarten?
Nickel and dime the people you want a long-term relationship with?
One terabyte of storage?
I'm glad I'm competing with you
And "he" is going to work on that when "all this" settles down...
This is absolutely true: being just one guy has a whole different set of dynamics than being a firm. One of the nice things about being solo is that overhead is generally so much less, but your customers don't see much depth for backup. I'm sure the list of difference is long and distinguished...
Steve
P.S. - I'd love to know what else you disagree with, either here or privately.
I'm new to slashdot: is this what people call "idiot trolls" ?
This is sadly true, and these awful people are the bane of good, honest consultants.
And I hope nobody gets the impression that technical skills don't matter: they absolutely do. I am fiercely technical and use my tech every day for my customers. That's the reason I solve problems.
But the reason I keep customers is because of my service skills.
Steve
Yes, this is very, very hard for me. I take a lot of pride in my code, and it's not easy to say "it's good enough" and let it go. More often than not I expand on an interesting area on my own time just so that I have code I can be proud of, but doesn't make the customer pay for a masterpiece.
Steve
Your point is very well taken, and a consultant does have to manage customer expectations. If they know that they never pay for little stuff, it creates one set of incentives that's really bad for you. But if they know that everything is charged, it creates another set that's bad in a different way.
It's all about reading your customer.
Steve
Yours is a fair objection: I work in my own little space, and I'm not any kind of authority on the types of business relations that one can have with customers. I have always seen "contracting" as short-term project-work, and "consulting" as more long-term work, but if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.
Steve
I've not found this to be the case: the consultant gets to pick what he does and does not charge for, and if customers know that every time they call you, they get billed for 5 minutes, it doesn't create an entirely friendly environment. I think that a certain amount of "freebies" is part of maintaining a good customer relationship: I get paid for my time, but I don't nickel-and-dime my customer to death.
Steve
Which hits the nail right on the head - thank you.
I'm much more on the technical side of consulting, and the only "marketing" I do is publishing original, technical content. Mainly I write C code all day, though I'm sure that this slashdot post is seen as "marketing"...
Steve