[immutology]

Is this "consulting" or "contracting"?

In my mind, "consulting" is knowledge work. Your role is to lend knowledge and expertise, help with strategy, architecture, tool/platform selection, etc.

"Contracting" is high-skill grunt work. Your role is to code your fingers off, deliver-deliver-deliver, typically according to someone else's (possibly ill-conceived) plan.

Have these things truly become synonymous?

[chrisseaton]

> Is this "consulting" or "contracting"?

The former is an activity and the latter is a business relationship, so they're orthogonal. Many consultants are contractors but not all are. Many contractors sell consultancy but not all do.

[baobabKoodaa]

You got the types of consulting right, but the terminology wrong. Yes, one type of consulting is lending your expertise, another type is lending a pair of hands. Either of these types of consulting work can occur under "contracting", "freelancing", or other types of business relationships. Often a "pair of hands" consult is hired "until further notice", so it's not always contracting.

[goodpoint]

> "Contracting" is high-skill grunt work. Your role is to code your fingers off, deliver-deliver-deliver, typically according to someone else's (possibly ill-conceived) plan.

Not at all. Contracting, in itself, is just the business agreement but most of the time contractors are experts and have plenty of autonomy.

The very opposite of grunt work.

[kerneloftruth]

No, you've got the distinction right. Many folks don't understand that difference. Many consultants crank out a lot of code, but they also do advising, planning, recommending, analyzing,...

[jpitz]

They're not always synonymous. Much of the time it's a little of column A, little of column B.

Even so, I try to ensure that my contracting engagements demonstrate my value as a consultant.

[wrnr]

I understand what you are trying to say but it is also a form of master-slave dialectic, you don't like something and feel above it and try to organise your social life with strict rules to isolate you from it. It's not even always a bad thing to do, like I an a coder who tries to avoid working with people who think like you.

[immutology]

I find this intriguing. Care to elaborate on it?

[datavirtue]

I end up doing both.