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Consulting firm vs. traditional employment pros and cons?

6 points by datavirtue ↗ HN
I'm asking the opinion of those who have worked as a consultant in an established firm vs working in a "regular" job (one employer). As a consultant I know you are always going on site or engaging new projects whereas you have to navigate the politics and day-to-day stuff in a regular 40hr job. What are the pros and cons of working as a consultant in an established firm vs being an operational employee for a company IT department or dev shop?

3 comments

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flukus
Pro: You don't have to deal with the mistakes you made in the past, or the mistakes other people have made.

Con: You don't learn from those mistakes. Consultants and maintainers will have very different views on what good architecture is.

Consultants are like locusts, moving from green field to green field and not seeing the devastation they leave behind.

greenyoda
"You don't have to deal with the mistakes you made in the past..."

If you refuse to come back and fix your mistakes, the customer might never hire you again. Having customers come to you with repeat business is much easier than having to go out and find a new customer each time, but they'll only do it if you've satisfied them the first time around. Also satisfied customers will recommend you to their friends. Someone who leaves devastation behind won't get any repeat business or recommendations, and might get sued.

"... or the mistakes other people have made."

Isn't it quite common for a company to bring in consultants to clean up the mess made by their own employees or by the previous consultants? My impression is that consultants who can do this well can make a lot of money (especially when the customer realizes that their mess was caused by going with the cheapest consultants the last time around).

flukus
> If you refuse to come back and fix your mistakes, the customer might never hire you again.

That might be true as an independent consultant but not as an employee of a consulting firm. They'll be charging to fix their mistakes though.

There is also an often abused trap here where consultants or consulting companies can intentionally require regular maintenance to charge clients more.

>Isn't it quite common for a company to bring in consultants to clean up the mess made by their own employees or by the previous consultants?

Yes, but my experience has been that this makes things worse. Again, this might be different for a consultant that had a specialized niche than it is for a generic consulting firm.