My post on 6/14/07 makes the statement that I do not want to be a consultant. That is largely true. However, after giving it some significant thought, I have come across an important distinction.
The 2 things that really sucked about being an IT consultant is:1) Only being on projects for a small time or for a specific task. Rarely do you get to "own" the project, the client does. Clients that I have dealt with rarely wanted to do any kind of interesting work. Interesting work goes a long way.
2) Enough work is never enough. As the goal is to make $$, the faster you complete a project, the more projects that you can juggle simultaneously and the more project sales that you can close, the better. There never was a line of "enough" work or projects or sales because doing these 3 things meant more $$ for the company. The whole enterprise is driven by a subdued form of greed.
This greed started to appear very ugly in my mind over the last year or so of my consulting time. The work was boring and unmotivating on its own, most of my team members were of an efficient mechanical sort, and the harder that I worked, the more $$ that I made for my boss and the company owners. Twice a year I received a financial bonus (end of yr 3 or 4% ; half that in June). This $$ was nice but just wasn't motivating enough to slave away, high stress (I hate sales so that is always high stress for me)for the rest of the year. In fact, in my last 12 months at the company, I brought in 20% of the work and keep in mind that my title was not that of a sales person. But I brought in 20% or ~ $425,000, way more than enough to cover my costs to the company. This level of sales took a significant amount of effort from me in writing proposals, dealing with clients and kissing their asses in the hopes that they hire my services. This effort was above my nearly 100% billable time of 40 hrs per week. (I know that many many folks put in way more hours than I, but going beyond 45 or so impacts my ability to be the type of Dad for my kids that I want to be.) Yet in June 2007, bonuses were not given out as the company "was not doing that well". Than why did I bother to expend the extra effort to make all of those project sales if I don't get rewarded? This is a business and it is all about money, right? Well then, where the hell is my piece of the $425k?
So, of course, it comes down to money. how much $$ will it take for me to work those extra hours, do the sales work that I despise and bust my ass working more hours? The bonus and salary and company vehicle at my last job were not enough. Also, working for that company would have been OK if I was not aware of the alternative employment options or me. jobs in State government, other companies or even the non-profit world. Especially, in comparison that I now have nearly the same amount of compensation w/ no sales, much lower hours, lots of time off, work that I own and believe in and still have time and energy for the rest of my life each day.
So I think if I were doing some consulting for myself, the financial reward would be high enough to make it worthwhile. Since I would be directly benefit ting financially, my motivation goes way up. Even at a conservative hourly rate, with taxes taken out, I can make about 30% more per hour than working at my last corporate employer.
I am thinking of consulting in addition to my day job. Now, I can live off of my day job and any consulting $$ is purely gravy. So the pressure and stress to make the sales is much less.
Sales, then really becomes the issue. I need to get work in the first place. I am currently working my personal connections to make this happen. When I announced my job change a month or so ago, I had 3 people ask me if I would be interested in doing some outside consulting work. 1 or possibly 2 are really real opportunities. I'll have to work these and see what happens. GIS is pretty much a niche of IT and the opportunities are hard to find.