Lots of conversations on consulting or getting into consulting, so I guess I should persist some of the things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve got a bunch of stuff and since it isn’t exactly technical in nature, I’ll post them all in my Grok This feed instead of my pure tech feed. I guess the economy is getting better if people are looking into getting back into consulting.
The first one is a common one, how do you find consulting assignments? Well, you need to spend about 5% of your time networking. You have to do that every week, and don’t stop just because you’ve got a long term assignment. What should you do when networking? The best thing is helping other consultants find assignments. What happens is by helping others, you have a reason to talk to the recruiters and prospective clients. Then when they have a need, they’ll call you, even if they know you are on assignment, because you may know someone. This is a much better way to get an assignment, because the major of assignments (and the best assignments) never get advertised, and are filled via word of mouth. And because you help keep your fellow consultants employed, plus help various consulting firms/clients, who do you think they are going to help when you need something? But, you also have to make sure that you are honest with everyone. Don’t lie to the consultants or the firms, it will only come back to haunt you. The other issue is compensation. Most recruiters will offer a finders fee (if they don’t, blacklist them), but remember, that fee is coming out of the consultant’s pocket, so you will have to decide for yourself if you want to take it. Oh that reminds me, keep a blacklist for consultant and firms, and make sure the network knows it. Anyone that screws another gets put on the list, and everyone is warned. They may still work with the individual, but at least they know to be careful. This works the best with the consulting firms, and you don’t get too many consultants on the list.
Now for finding spots via the web, which is possible, and is usually used to start you on your consulting career. My favorite site is www.dice.com. I’ve used them pre-Internet, when they were a bulletin board out of Iowa with a bunch of local dialup numbers across the States (and you downloaded the a text file containing jobs by area code). The name use to stand for Direct Independent Contractors Exchange, and although they have opened up to FTE positions, it is still the best place for independents to find jobs. Another decent, but not great one is www.NetTemps.com.
DonXML Demsak