[kqr]

I started out in consulting and at one point decided that I would no longer accept those sorts of jobs, for primarily one reason: at consulting gigs, I never[1] got to stick around long enough to experience the long-term consequences of my choices.

I started out consulting because I thought it would be a great way to learn a wide variety of things but it turns in order to actually, really, truly learn something, you need to stick around for a long time to see the long-term, second order consequences unfold.

Instead, I've now been in a few smaller product orgs, where I get many of the benefits of consulting (high pace, many hats, good compensation, lots of learning all around, wide array of technologies) except I also get to witness how everything ends up and what the fruits of my labour are.

Something else that I hadn't thought about until now is that in these smaller product orgs I also get the opportunity to build the culture and organisation from scratch – that was rarely something offered to me at the consulting gigs.

[1]: Of course, I shoudn't say never. Maybe once or twice were there opportunities to stick around for a long time, but they were rare in comparison.