Consulting jobs

[dukebound85]

DO you like having to bill every minute of your day? I have an offer as a consultant and it is work I am very passionate in. However, it is consulting as opposed to being a staff engineer (not billing time).

In addition to the work, there is far less travel. Is the consulting nature of work fun?

 

[hatuko]

I do consulting - although it's been for a single client for a while - and while the money is better, I have to travel more instead and it's too much of a hassle for me having to deal with all the stuff of my company. I have an accountant to help, but still there are things I have to do which bother me...
If there wasn't any difference money-wise, I would probably prefer being a product guy as employee in some company. Much easier

 

[puma1552]

I'm in engineering consulting.

Having to bill every minute kind of sucks. At least at my company, I have to get 40 billable hours every week, so at very minimum you're looking at 42.5 hours per week if you took a half hour lunch everyday and literally nothing else - no chatting, no breaks to go out to the coffee shop next door, etc. So really you are looking at probably more like 45 hours absolute minimum to get your bare minimum 40 hours in.

We have a lot of flexibility as far as being able to take off early if you have an appointment or something, but you have to make the time up because of the 40 billable hours. Want to knock off at noon on Friday? You can probably forget it. This is probably the biggest drawback to consulting, you can't just knock off early like a regular salaried employee.

The other issue with consulting is every client wants everything done yesterday. However this may be more related to how well your company manages client expectations.

In my position, I luckily don't have to travel more than a couple times a year, but others in my company travel far more often.

 

[Tomorrow]

This is probably the biggest drawback to consulting, you can't just knock off early like a regular salaried employee.

We might need to define what a "consultant" is, since I'm a consulting engineer and I'm a salaried employee.

Also, where do you live where people normally get paid for lunch breaks? Our 40-hour weeks include work time, not lunch time.

 

[puma1552]

We might need to define what a "consultant" is, since I'm a consulting engineer and I'm a salaried employee.

Also, where do you live where people normally get paid for lunch breaks? Our 40-hour weeks include work time, not lunch time.

I'm salaried too, and consultant is in my title. I have many different clients and projects for which my time is billed to and I fill out an itemized time card each week so that each client is billed properly for my consulting services.

Just because I have to bill my time to the client doesn't mean I'm not salaried - it's not like they pay me directly like I'm freelance, they pay my company $150 an hour for my services who in turn pays me a salaried amount, the rest is company profit, as you would expect. I generate more for the company than I am paid in salary, like anyone at any company.

I'm not sure what your comment about lunch breaks is getting at - most people who are salaried aren't watching their lunch time to the minute anyway, so a salaried employee outside of consulting probably works 40 flat or close to it, if even. I don't know a lot of salaried employees who work a flat 8-4:30 or what have you, they just work 40 hours plus or minus as the workload demands without having to nickel and dime every minute they are there. Maybe they work 50 some weeks, 36 the next, etc. Like you, my 40 hour week only includes work time, not lunch time since I can't bill my client to eat, as clearly stated.

 

[Tomorrow]

I'm salaried too, and consultant is in my title. I have many different clients and projects for which my time is billed to and I fill out an itemized time card each week so that each client is billed properly for my consulting services.

Just because I have to bill my time to the client doesn't mean I'm not salaried - it's not like they pay me directly like I'm freelance, they pay my company $150 an hour for my services who in turn pays me a salaried amount, the rest is company profit, as you would expect. I generate more for the company than I am paid in salary, like anyone at any company.

Everything you just described is exactly what my role is as well - except that I don't necessarily have to have 40 "billable" hours. I'm expected to have approximately 15% of my hours charged to overhead, marketing, professional development, etc. But like you described, my time gets charged to whatever project I'm working on.

I'm not sure what your comment about lunch breaks is getting at - most people who are salaried aren't watching their lunch time to the minute anyway, so a salaried employee outside of consulting probably works 40 flat or close to it, if even. I don't know a lot of salaried employees who work a flat 8-4:30 or what have you, they just work 40 hours plus or minus as the workload demands without having to nickel and dime every minute they are there. Maybe they work 50 some weeks, 36 the next, etc. Like you, my 40 hour week only includes work time, not lunch time since I can't bill my client to eat, as clearly stated.

My 40 hour work week is 8 to 5, Monday thru Friday. I get an hour each day for lunch. You made a comment along the line of needing to work 45 hours or so to get your 40 billable hours; it seemed to me that you were including your lunch breaks as part of that 45 hours of "work" you need to put in.

 

[Suture]

It's fun as long as you enjoy the field.

I'm a cyber security consultant, and like the field. Time sheets are annoying sometimes as sometimes I am working on multiple client engagements, or even multiple projects for one client that yield different charge codes for each platform I'm supporting; mine are in 15 minute increments.

The hardest thing is probably the continual education. In my field I have to constantly read up on the latest vulnerabilities (hello, POODLE), or do some research here and there.