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Ask HN: Increasing Skills and Consulting?

9 points by PieSquared ↗ HN
I was recently reading the HN thread at http://hackerne.ws/item?id=2647301 and remembered how I was in a similar situation a few years ago. (Well, the kid in that thread seems a bit more proficient and forwards thinking than I was, but ey, same sort of deal.) Anyway, I've been playing around with technology soon, and am a college freshman now (doing engineering and physics and such).

One of the commenters in previous link said something along the lines of: "Work on your skills, then you can later earn money consulting at $100/hr" or something along the lines of that. I'm curious about two things:

1. What type of skills should I be working on? What are valuable skills if you're doing consulting?

2. I've done some consulting/freelancing, but I haven't really been able to raise my rates above $30/hr or so. Then again, most of the consulting I've done has been for startups and their like - most of which can't afford high rates. How do you get consulting/freelancing gigs? (Mine have been from distant family friends and HN Who's Hiring)

[Addendum: For the record, the reason I'm interested is because even though I probably won't need to go into debt to pay for college (scholarships help a lot, a bit parents, a bit saved up), working at higher rates would still help. College is pretty damn expensive.]

[Addendum 2: I have a pretty cool freelancing gig right now which I definitely like, I'm just curious for the future.]

3 comments

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patio11
1. Anything which solves problem for businesses, which can include programming. Do not, do not, do not assume that being a programming demigod is required to be a high-class consultant or that is even your primary source of value.

There are any number of folks who consult on things on HN, on everything from optimizing warehouse processes to pen testing Java web applications with obscure wire protocols to SEOing websites for software companies. The common thread among those who make a lot of money is that their customers trust them to make them shedloads of money or avoid equivalent losses.

2) I once read an interview with a wealth management professional on the secret to getting rich off regular labor, and his answer was interesting: "Transactional work for rich people." To elaborate, if you're essentially getting paid a portion of the transaction, you want to work for people whose transactions are huge. Given that it takes virtually the same amount of work to sell a $2 million house and a $200,000 house, get the 7% off the pricier house. Given that it takes essentially the same amount of work to write a SEO strategy for a company that has $20 million a year in revenue and one that has $20,000 a year in revenue, do it for the bigger company.

I get consulting gigs primarily because folks ask me to consult for them. They typically know me from some combination of my blog, my Internet participation at watering holes like HN, or offline networking. (Conferences and HN meetups have been very good to me, and I enjoy the heck out of them.)

By the way: I know this is probably blow-your-mind territory right now, but I wish somebody would have told me when I was a college freshman since it would have saved several years: $100 is not a high consulting rate. People substantially less talented than you command multiples of it, for a variety of reasons. For example, the day after you graduate, you could be billed out at $300 / hour by one of the large consulting firms like McKinsey. That's probably a pathological example, but if you nail what McKinsey nails (giving clients the feeling that corporate money spent on them will ensure their personal career goals), you can also command rates that are substantially in excess of the numbers you are currently contemplating.

gexla
Pretty much anything. I know people making those rates configuring content management systems. How much easier work can you get than that?

If you charge per project then you can free yourself from the hourly game. In some cases a healthy project fee can look more appealing than an hourly rate even if you know that you could do the project for half the cost of the per project fee if you were to charge hourly. Hourly makes people nervous.

Sometimes hour rates are meaningless. If the developer is horribly slow, dishonest or incompetent then even "cheap" becomes expensive. What good does saving money on a developer do if your business is losing wads of money because the developer is taking far longer than expected to complete your project?

I think it all comes down to giving the client the warm and fuzzies, delivering in a reasonable timeframe and doing so with decent quality. It's also about being able to sell yourself. These aren't always the qualities of a technician. You also have to be a business person.

csomar
Don't care about the rate until you are competent enough. Competence is subjective, and the more you learn the better. Try to be able to do something from A to Z (like a Website) and take care of all the details. When you are self-confident enough, start looking for jobs.

Rates vary widely and they are not always a good measure of your knowledge and expertise. Connections, portfolio, friends... are what will determine your rates. Meeting with the right person and the right company is key and it's not always an easy job. But that's the not the matter now.