Job Options After Consulting

sieff

Recently I put my resume out there to get a feel for the market and what the alternatives were. The past 8-9 years I've worked for the same consulting firm. It's been a great journey, but I feel I may be missing out on higher pay and better opportunities. When on a technical interview for a NOC position at a ISP I was asked "why go from Consulting to a NOC, normally it would be the opposite?"

Right now my only concerns are for a solid company, excellent benefits package and I'm looking for a significant increase in pay. Any thoughts on what's next after consulting? This NOC job I interviewed for was Architect level, rotating shifts, on-call, and pay was about a 20% increase. Another incentive was the ISP would assist with my MBA studies.

I've also been looking at other consulting gigs, a small military contractor gave me a range of $135-150K depending on how my technical interview goes and they'd process a TS clearance.

Plantwiz

One of the positives of consulting is 'not being in anyone place for long' but getting to deal with a multitude of problems, networks and a possibly more diverse group of people on a daily basis. You get the mix of a single long-term project and the option to do something different each day.

SO, spin that in reverse for your needs today. Something along the lines of, 'I have reached a point in my career that I want to become (or stay) more specialized. As networks grow in completixity, I see the growing need to dig deeper into a specific area such as '....' and I have the skillset to do just that. I'm a 'focused' or 'x' type of individual and my experience handling a variety of different networks will provide me a strong background in helping others troubleshoot their difficulties using our network.

Much (IMO) will have to do with where you see yourself today in your career. With 8-9 years doing consulting, the 'fun' may have escape from that type of work (been there done that) and your day-to-day problems you run into becomes mundane while you wait for folks to make upgrade decisions and such. And doing this type of work is fun! And after a point, when it is no longer fun, it is time to move forward and specialize a bit more.

Another perk may be that you wil see a 'regular' schedule. And at this point in your life, you may be ready to have a schedule you can count on with a team of people you work with rather than always being the 'goto' guy/gal. You might also consider that since you have run your own business (assuming you did being a consultant) that you are acutely aware of the costs of being efficient and limiting wasted time/resources during the job, so you will be able to bring 'savings' to your new position since you already have a grasp at how critical it is to be smartly productive every minute you work.

stlsmoore

I would think the next steps would be to start your own consulting business since you have a ton of experience at it. Find someone that can sale for you and then do the work yourself just long enough until you can get employees or contractors to do the leg work for you. Focus on running the business and not working for the business; that's my plans at least.

sieff

i've been in IT/Consulting for a Cisco Gold Partner. its been a great ride, great exposure, lots of free training, etc. i do enjoy the flexibility of making my own schedule. the only problem is being with the same company for so long, i've found that the yearly increases and bonuses don't equate to the going market now. so that's why i started looking. what really attracted me to the NOC job were the benefits, and how in depth these guys were with the technologies. as a consultant you sell it, install it, test it and move on. occasionally you do your share of upgrades and maintenance and run into some problems in between, but in a NOC environment, especially as a architect, working on infrastructure stuff sounded like a cool gig. a bit of a break from what i've been doing and a defined schedule would be great to work on my MBA on my off time.

another issue is that since my search recruiters from other consulting firms have been coming pretty hard with other great packages. its really making for a tough decision.

it_consultant

You probably should have left that firm 3-4 years ago. Water under the bridge now. I am not consulting anymore, but after I straighten out this organization I will probably go back to consulting. Staying in one place can, and will, make you stale. Continually consulting can give you a bad attitude and can strain work/life balance.