One Downfall of Consulting
I don’t want to come across as this “rah rah consulting is awesome all the time!” kind of blog.
It’s simply not true.
Sometimes consulting can flat out suck. Plain and simple. I’m going to talk about one of those downfalls today.
You’re at the mercy of the client
Of course, you probably knew this. But you are simply at the mercy of every little thing that could go wrong with the client and the client’s business.
Remember, you are working for an organization larger than just the management team you are consulting with. Even if that team absolutely loves you… even if they would never want to lose you, it can still happen. Thanks to the top-down order of business, if the order comes from up-top (the CEO, the CIO, or even a lowly Vice President) to cut budgets in department B, department G, and department X… you better hope you work in some other department. (I hear department A is doing incredible things these days.)
If the order for budget cuts come down the pipe, consultants are almost always the first to go. You come in on Thursday and they tell you Friday will be your last day on project. Time to find a new project, and make some calls.
Next time I’ll talk about making yourself so invaluable that they simply can’t cut you. Even though they still can.