| Thanks for the interesting, provocative post. I would say that the only reason to be an employee is if you want employee benefits. I am not talking about health care and 401k, though those are nice. No, the main benefit of being an employee is: * A higher level of commitment from both sides This has the following ramifications: * You will learn a domain more thoroughly. If you are hopping between projects very year or nine months, you will get good at picking up domain knowledge, but understanding a domain deeply happens after a few years. * You will have more opportunity for a leadership role (people hire consultants to kick butt and take names, but rarely to manage larger teams or projects). * Team camaraderie. You can make great connections as a consultant, but, as you say, there's always the awareness you are a hired gun. Employees on a tram pulling together to build something awesome? The bonding is strong. * Stock options might be worth something, if you are very very lucky. * You can gain experience in something new to you, and get paid to do so. This is especially important for less experienced folks. Consultants are paid for the knowledge they bring to bear, and while you may be paid to learn something new, especially later in an engagement when they trust you and just need some tasks taken care of, most of the time you will be paid to work within your specialty, and have to gain new specialties on your own dime. If these employee benefits aren't of interest, consult away. This article might be of interest as well: https://bothsidesofthetable.com/is-it-time-for-you-to-earn-o... |
* Team camaraderie. You can make great connections as a consultant, but, as you say, there's always the awareness you are a hired gun. Employees on a tram pulling together to build something awesome? The bonding is strong.
People usually are more open with me than with others because there's less of a reason for me to tap into politics or to play games. I'm there to do a job. Whether Jeff tries to pass off my work as his own is irrelevant to me. I'm not working towards a promotion. My loyalty lies with the guy who writes the checks. Not "the company".
Lasting friendships happen and people trust me. They can rely on the fact that I'm not there to take anything away from them.
So maybe a bit of a misinterpretation on your end. People sometimes get a bit envious about the lifestyle, but they're not "afraid" of consultants.
* Stock options might be worth something, if you are very very lucky.
I can negotiate stock, but that's not the point. This is mostly a matter of variance. Do you want to go all-in or do you take the bigger annualized returns in favor of the jackpot? I earn more as a consulting than I would as an employee. That's my hedge. If I want to go for broke, I'll start my own thing. Depending on some whack entrepreneur who may explode any day is not something I'm interested in really.
* You can gain experience in something new to you, and get paid to do so. This is especially important for less experienced folks. Consultants are paid for the knowledge they bring to bear, and while you may be paid to learn something new, especially later in an engagement when they trust you and just need some tasks taken care of, most of the time you will be paid to work within your specialty, and have to gain new specialties on your own dime.
That's the one thing I disagree most about. I generally do not take jobs where I have to do something I've already done. I want to do new things. I guess people hire me because I'm smart, which has already been proven. And they trust me to figure out how to do the things they want done. So maybe in that way you are right. But I don't take boring assignments.
But the most important part is this:
* A higher level of commitment from both sides
I don't like committing to some company. Its annoying. I commit to other things. Like my loved ones. Companies buy chunks of my time to get a desired output. I don't get emotional over them. You pay me to do X. You get X. You decide you rather want Y? Renegotiate, pay me to do Y. You get Y. You pay me for 40 hours, you get 40 hours. You decide that its funny to call me on a sunday afternoon, you get charged the sunday afternoon rate. You yell at me? You're not my boss. You get angry, get a life. I appreciate a certain professionalism in professional relationships.
"Employers" want people to be on call. At no extra cost. You want me to be on-call, you pay the on-call rate. Suddenly you don't want me to be on-call anymore. Good for you. Neither do I want to be on-call. But you've got these employees, if you want them to be on-call, they have to be on-call or you fire them. That's not something I want to be part of.
To each their own. There are lots of great employers in the world, but being an employee sounds not good to me. Maybe its because I don't really "love" software. I'm merely good at it. But when I'm done at work I like to do other things.