HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is a “consultant” in software engineering?

1 points by pearjuice ↗ HN
Is it just a fancy name for people doing better paid wage slavery with invoices instead of paychecks or people actually standing in as some sort of knowledge bank whilst writing few to no lines of code?

2 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 16.1 ms ] thread
davismwfl
Depends.

I view freelancer as just a developer/engineer that is paid on invoice.

I view consultant as someone with specialized or advanced knowledge who can address the problem beyond writing some code. But they may still write some code. But they are hired for a specific purpose and issue not as a general developer.

detaro
The key to consultant vs contractor would for me the focus on specialized advice with the former, but that doesn't mean it is just that. E.g. a consulting gig could start with clear consulting ("talk to the customer about their problem, investigate, give them an expert opinion on how to solve it") and then turn into the consultant also doing the implementation. But a consultant also could just produce a report, or direct the client's employees on how to solve a problem.

And contractors will often do consulting in the beginning stages, e.g. if they're hired to "build a website", they might give the customer specialized advice on what to consider or prioritize, ...