NYCPHP Meetup

[-- rada --]

Tom,

As someone who grew up under a communist regime, I absolutely love your anti-protectionist attitude. However, I have a factual issue with what you said about IT salaries:

    Look at your market.  The "big" consulting firms 
    charge much more and pay their people much more.  
    How come they are getting it and you are not?  
    That's the question you need to ask.  You 
    shouldn't be looking for protection from the 
    marketplace, you should be looking for ways to 
    excel in it.

I have worked for two of the Big consulting firms for several year. I am very familiar with their particular way of doing business and I'd like to make two points. 

1. Hourly Rates 

In my case, I was billed out at ~$350/hour while making $80K/year. The easy conclusion is: cut out the middle man and take $350/hour for yourself. A slightly more thoughtful conclusion is: cut my rate down to say, $250, since I no longer have a shiny midtown office with a support staff, enterprise hardware/licenses ready to go, etc, etc. But the real deal is something else altogether. The real reason managers hire the big guns is risk assurance, or what is known in consultant speak as "you can't get fired for choosing IBM". The second you are no longer with a big firm, your bid will never even make to due diligence stage of the proposal process, let alone pass it. 

If you don't believe me, look at recruiters. I am a freelancer now, working through agencies. They make a percentage of what I make and therefore would LOVE to get me a higher rate. They simply can't though. I work with several good agencies and the rates are similar across the board even while they can't find enough people. That tells you something right there about the market. 


2. Salaries

There are indeed people making excellent money at big consulting firms. They are called partners. They may be former engineers, but believe me the only way that they make top bonuses etc is if they SELL. If you see a consultant making really good money, it's because they've been selling projects and just haven't made the full transition from a techie to a partner yet. You will invariably see them in project manager roles, which is the bridge.  


I quit big consulting in 2003 and I've been fairly successful as a freelancer. I also happen to support your viewpoint a 100%, both what you said about the evils of regulation (be it unions, licenses, or whatever) and taking personal responsibility for what we choose to do and for how much. However, facts are facts - IT people make less than others when compared in terms of education and skills, and you did go a little bit Ayn Rand on us when you said that we should be looking to excel instead of complaining. I'd love to live in a world where working hard gets me a pass to a mountain paradise of prosperity but it's just not the case. Let's face it, we do what we do because we like it... not because we couldn't get more mileage elsewhere on same brainpower.


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