IT consultant

Can anyone here share their experience working with an IT consultant firm (pro's and con's).

If you had such experience would you do it again?

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royal

* Have to keep up to date on latest technology as consultants are there to go into companies where their IT staff can't fix something, or don't know the new technology. Whereas if you are a LAN admin, there is a lot of downtime sometimes. Of course there are many LAN Admins who are constantly researching new technology when there isn't much to do. From my experience in my consultant company, if you're not doing something, you're reading and researching new technology because you have to do continue being a consultant.
* Always out at clients. If consultants are not out at clients, they're probably watching webcasts, reading books, etc. to keep up to date on new technology
* Travelling - Sometimes out of state and for months at a time.

From my experience, being a consultant is best when you are single. If you are married and/or have kids, consulting can take a toll on your quality of family life. This always depends on the company and what you are doing, however.

RTmarc

I worked as a consultant for quite a while and it was fun. I always enjoyed getting out and not being locked down to one place everyday but there were some definite cons. Working for one company means I have to worry about only one network. Not to mention I only have to deal with one set of morons instead of several companies worth.

Kaminsky

There are downsides that eventually start to get on your nerves.

One of my biggest peeves is that you have no say in how the company carries out their IT. You can spend a lot of time drawing up plans for this and that as your recomendation of the best way for them to go forward but its up to them if they want to do it. If the local techies can't be bothered or arn't up to scratch then it will all fall flat. You walk away to the next job knowing they are lining themselves up for problems and that shrugging of your shoulders always urks me.

No job security, Sick pay and holidays are another. Simply, if you want these then you have to make allowances for them yourself. If your not working, your not getting paid. Sounds ok in theory but in practice it can be a nuiscance.

The training and certification you need to keep ahead of the game and keep bringing in the work also comes out of your end.

If your working for yourself you are also paying not just employee taxes but employer tax contributions as well and that comes out of your end.

Pluses are the freedom you have (bearing in mind point 2 above) with your life but in my experience you will work much much harder working for yourself than if you work for someone else. However, you will never get rich working for someone else.

famosbrown

The above posters are sharing experiences working as a consultant. I will share my experience working WITH consultants.

PRO's

They usually have a good customer base and work with a variety of things, so chances are they have seen everything you have thrown at them already.

They are willing to show or teach you certain things if you ask the right questions.

They tend to work fast and get the job done when they are on track and on task.

Response is great, they keep up with new technology, and are willing to make recommendations or changes that you may have not thought about yourself.

CON's

They are usually expensive. They are charging you rather you are with them working side by side and a side bar conversation about something else comes up and it last for 15 minutes. The consultant was called in for one issue, but another popped up in your head, so you begin talking about it.

When consultants are given a task, if it doesn't work after they leave, some will charge you to come back out to correct the issue, or you just have to do it yourself (sometimes consultants get called in to help out witha lot of stuff due to manpower).

They know how to milk the clock. They will suggest extra things that are nice, but aren't needed, or things you can do yourself when you get the time.

They do not volunteer information unless you ask the right questions. If they install a new switch or piece of software, they won't tell you the username and password voluntarily. When you need to administer it, you will have to call to ask for it. If they come out to fix a problem, they won't tell you all of the details of what happened, how it is caused, how it was fixed, or anything unless you ask the right questions.

Paying for learning. Sometimes a consultant comes in not knowing a specific piece of software or hardware, so you are paying them to research and figure out the stuff before they actually begin doing the work or completing the task you brought them in to do.

Biases. If you are using them to recommend network infrastructure, backup software, or anything else, they will most likely choose things that they are more comfortable with rather than what would be BEST for your company. They would rather you have a piece of proprietary software with little support that they are VERY good with rahter than a commercial product with great tech support and reputation that they aren't comfortable with (a little exagerrated, but hopefully the point was made).

Okay, I'm done. These are examples of PRO's of CON's working with consultants with a little bit thrown in from my experience working as a consultant. I could have just kept going and going on both PRO's and CON's.

sprkymrk

famosbrown wrote:

Biases. If you are using them to recommend network infrastructure, backup software, or anything else, they will most likely choose things that they are more comfortable with rather than what would be BEST for your company. They would rather you have a piece of proprietary software with little support that they are VERY good with rahter than a commercial product with great tech support and reputation that they aren't comfortable with (a little exagerrated, but hopefully the point was made).

This is similar to one thing I was thinking of as a sign of a bad consultant - "canned" solutions. They are trying to sell the same solution (just happens to be what they specialize in) to everyone, just with a different power point presentation to market it to you. When all you have is a hammer, all problems tend to look like nails.

Kaminsky

famosbrown wrote:

PRO's

They usually have a good customer base and work with a variety of things, so chances are they have seen everything you have thrown at them already.

They are willing to show or teach you certain things if you ask the right questions.

They tend to work fast and get the job done when they are on track and on task.

Response is great, they keep up with new technology, and are willing to make recommendations or changes that you may have not thought about yourself.

Just because someone calls themselves a consultant doesn't necessarily mean they know more than you do. They are just willing to live off their occupational knowledge to make a living rather than work for someone else.

Like 90% of people in our industry, we like to share knowledge. To explain that we work well it is easier to think of it that we just work the same as permanent employees did in their first few weeks in their permanent job before they started relaxing and getting their feet under the desk. We never get that luxury. We don't have a permanent job so we work to impress perpetually. I would geuss that the vast majority of contractors/consultants would take a permanent job if the location/salary/hours were right for them.

famosbrown wrote:

CON's

They are usually expensive. They are charging you rather you are with them working side by side and a side bar conversation about something else comes up and it last for 15 minutes. The consultant was called in for one issue, but another popped up in your head, so you begin talking about it.

When consultants are given a task, if it doesn't work after they leave, some will charge you to come back out to correct the issue, or you just have to do it yourself (sometimes consultants get called in to help out witha lot of stuff due to manpower).

They know how to milk the clock. They will suggest extra things that are nice, but aren't needed, or things you can do yourself when you get the time.

They do not volunteer information unless you ask the right questions. If they install a new switch or piece of software, they won't tell you the username and password voluntarily. When you need to administer it, you will have to call to ask for it. If they come out to fix a problem, they won't tell you all of the details of what happened, how it is caused, how it was fixed, or anything unless you ask the right questions.

Paying for learning. Sometimes a consultant comes in not knowing a specific piece of software or hardware, so you are paying them to research and figure out the stuff before they actually begin doing the work or completing the task you brought them in to do.

Biases. If you are using them to recommend network infrastructure, backup software, or anything else, they will most likely choose things that they are more comfortable with rather than what would be BEST for your company. They would rather you have a piece of proprietary software with little support that they are VERY good with rahter than a commercial product with great tech support and reputation that they aren't comfortable with (a little exagerrated, but hopefully the point was made).

Consultants called in to short term tasks will do just that. Typicaly they assume they were brought in because nobody currently on site had the ability to do the task/very limited in time so couldn't do the task or the company wouldn't have paid over the odds for the consultant to do it.

Now if they arn't leaving vital information like passwords then I refer to my previous point (just because someone calls themselves a consultant .......) Me personally, I assume nothing. I am there for a job which I will do to the best of my knowledge and as part of that, get what I have done ready for handover when I walk away so that whoever takes over can just slip straight into it. (I never try to make myself look clever to wangle a permanent job over the existing techies) If a consultant is withholding this information whether knowingly or not, I would suggest you never touch them again after you have got the information you require. There are plenty of us out there that don't try to "gather untu us that which now belong to us!".

We are just a service like any other. We chose our bed and, for the most part, are quite happy to lie in it.

Oh... and by the way. If we turn up on site and yuou want to talk to us for an hour making coffee and talking about the weather.. many thanks for that... the meter is ticking. When I was in permanent employment, I kicked out and refused to pay two consultants that turned up, got a coffe and breakfast and started chattin before they went and fixed what I had asked them to come in and fix. Now I am on the other side of the fence, I expect the same in return.

famosbrown

famosbrown wrote:

Okay, I'm done. These are examples of PRO's of CON's working with consultants with a little bit thrown in from my experience working as a consultant. I could have just kept going and going on both PRO's and CON's.

Quoting myself...from my experiences. Not trying to bash or promote I.T. consultants. They can't be all good. Never said that consultants knows more than the full-time employees, and I hope a consultant wouldn't ASSume that because he/she is called because the current staff wasn't knowledgeable enough to fix or complete a task. I'll change the name from consultant to outside temp contracting/consultation.