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Ask HN: What sorts of consulting work do you do?

13 points by asym ↗ HN
[Posting this from a temp account as I'm not sure regarding the validity of the question]

I was thinking about consulting recently and it dawned on me that the only thing stopping me from beginning looking for work is my irrational fear of technical inadequacy. I understand it's probably unwarranted, but it doesn't stop from being an issue.

The question I have is as follows: Can HNers give summaries of recent tasks they had to complete, working as consultants? Any details removed (or left in) is completely understood.

I'm not really looking for advice on finding work, or asking for career advice, I'm just interested in the actual non-overhead work that you'd work on and maybe it would help others in my situation. And if the question's out of line, I understand.

Thanks in advance.

11 comments

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edw519
...the only thing stopping me from beginning looking for work is my irrational fear of technical inadequacy...

The most important thing I ever learned from my first programming mentor, "Consulting is not a matter of how good you are, it's a matter of how far in front of your users you can stay."

I've done hundreds of consulting projects and I can testify that his words still ring true today.

Go for it.

tocomment
What do you mean, how far in front?
edw519
Good question. I guess my simplest possible answer would be to never be on the critical path. In other words, no project I ever work on is waiting for me to do something. I get done what we've agreed upon as quickly as possible, ready for the next steps. Invariably, if you're any good at all, you will almost always be waiting on the customer for something. As long as you're in this position, you're in good enough shape that you should never be afraid to take on business.

I was addressing OP's irrational fear of doing something, which, in his case, is probably exactly that: irrational. Hope that answers your question.

byoung2
The last few consulting projects I did were for a company looking to cut costs using technology. They hired me for 3 projects:

1. Cost/Benefits Analysis for switching to Angel/Salesforce and VOIP 2. Vetting outsourcing/offshoring companies for data entry/low-level programming work 3. Budget forecasting for computerizing data collection processes

In each case, I didn't have to actually complete the technical work, just know how much it would cost and who to hire to actually do the work. I was paid a flat fee plus a percentage of the cost savings realized.

DanielBMarkham
I do a lot of high-end stuff now, but let me tell you about how I started:

I went door-to-door downtown asking small businesses if they needed any help with their computers. By the time I got to the second business, I had my first gig, setting up a small network.

That gig led to others, which led to others. I installed printers. I created small database applications. I had this one job that for two weeks I just ran around downtown helping users at their desks -- it was a lot of fun! The guy said "You're filling in for me. When this beeper beeps, go to the person and help them with their problem". He handed me the beeper, it immediately beeped, and I spent the next two weeks running around like a madman. Had a blast.

Later on this "odd jobs" method of starting led into project work, then into programming-consulting.

A lot of getting started is just having a good attitude and being able to figure out answers for people's technical problems. I found starting out to be the most enjoyable part of building a consulting career, actually. Have fun!

rodrigo
"I do a lot of high-end stuff now,"

What you mean by high-end? im asking because im looking into consulting as a career option, and want to know what people's doing. Any hindsight will be appreciated.

DanielBMarkham
I do what you call "true" consulting -- I deliver value by being a trusted advisor to folks. I was really good at working on my own. Then I got really good at working in teams. Then leading teams. Then training project managers and architects. Then setting up program offices. Along the way I got a patent on measuring agility in teams -- and did a lot of hands-on startup work.

Now I'm the guy you go to when you have a dozen or more teams and somehow your performance tanked as compared to when it was just you and your buds in the dorm: I work on how large groups of developers can play together with maximum efficiency.

It's not a solved problem by any means -- it's tough, intractable in some cases, full of varying forms of opinions and expertise which mostly conflict with each other. But it's possible to fix things, or at least make them a lot better.

I've found that as I've worked my way up the consulting ladder the situations get more vague, the problems much harder, and the politics a lot tougher. Lots of folks want things to get better, as long as nothing much changes. (grin)

My advice as far as making this a career? Read voraciously -- much more than the other guys. Avoid conferences and other forms of "feel good" knowledge acquisition - focus on what works and what doesn't work. Learn to differentiate the idea-of-the-month books from books where the author is exploring what he knows. Learn about five years ahead of where you think the market is going to be. And the one thing I wished I had done better: network. All the time. At some point this business becomes about who you know. The better you network the quicker this happens.

rodrigo
What i wanted to know more about is (and i do now thanks to you): what does someone can sell, what does a business needs so bad that it reaches an outsider and pays him to get. Also interesting, your take on the "consulting ladder", when i think about doing consulting, i try to find what could i offer, but i wasnt seeing it as a process to find your place. Thanks a lot Daniel, as usual i got to learn something of what you say.
DanielBMarkham
When I was young I used to think high-paid consultants were the smartest people in the building.

Now that I am one of those guys, I know better! Consultants are trusted friends who know stuff. Work on being a good friend and knowing valuable stuff and you'll be a good consultant.

rodrigo
I have met some very high paid consultants who doesnt look smart at all(smartly dressed, if any);

Knowing stuff and being able to do something useful with it (AND sell it) looks pretty smart to me. :)

DanielBMarkham
The thing is: there's a tension between "knowing stuff" and "being a good friend"

It usually means coming in and caring for folks you have never met who are doing things in a way that hurts. The trick is to explain this to them in a way that's non-confrontational and that they can grow from.

I used to tell people being a consultant was traveling to far away places to meet new people and disagree with them (grin)