Re: Why people dislike consultants

Who cares?

Frank Rodgers

On Tue, 16 Nov 1999 morlej_at_my-deja.com wrote:

> Great! Stirred up some discussion!
> Now's a good time to throw some more information in.
> PERSONALLY SPEAKING, I'm neither disgruntled, nor a newbie in the
> market. Quite the reverse on both counts, in fact. Also, my intent here
> is not to slam consultants, but rather to try and get a valuable
> discussion up about this subject. The points I marked up in the
> original posting did not (necessarily) constitute my own opinions, but
> rather the noise I hear when I put my ear to the ground.
> The naivety in the posting is also deliberate - it's great to get all
> the different perspectives filling in the blanks.
> So, if I can paraphrase the responses so far (which have ALL been from
> consultants?):
> 1. Consultants solve problems that the employer either has no bandwidth
> or skillsets in house to do so.
> 2. There are 'bad consultants' and 'good consultants'
> 3. The purchaser of consulting services IS 'the boss'.
>
> How would things change if, say, a consultant could afford to go in at
> 40 USD per hour, with no expenses?
> Would the boss still be the decision maker?
> If the consultants were always of a uniform quality (ie no bad
> consultant), what difference would this make?
> If there were sufficient consultants to be 'always available', how much
> difference would this make?
> How much time does a consultant take to get acclimatized on a new site?
>
>
> James
>
> In article <38305CE5.F52C8778_at_cais.com>,
> randy_at_euclidsys.com wrote:
> > James,
> >
> > you sound like a disgruntled guy. too bad.
> >
> > consultants serve a very important purpose (maybe several) and you
> seem
> > to miss all of them in your post. btw, I am fully employed but do
> > occaisionally do consulting on the side...
> >
> > I find people DO like consultants. at least they like ME :)
> >
> > why? because I solve their problems. simple.
> >
> > Is it worth it to them? yes.
> >
> > try to imagine that you are the boss. (I am 'the boss' btw...). why
> > would you want to hire a consultant? in short: because my existing
> staff
> > does not have the skills and/or time to complete the project within
> the
> > existing time or monetary constraints.
> >
> > sorry, but if i had an employee like you who insisted that no
> consultant
> > come in and 'ruin' your efforts, and all you needed was a little more
> > surfing time to find the right liftable code, then i would fire you.
> in
> > the long run, it would be far cheaper to replace you than to be
> hindered
> > by your 'not developed here' attitude.
> >
> > randy
> >
> > morlej_at_my-deja.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear All,
> > >
> > > It seems to me, from my experience in the industry, that people do
> not
> > > like computer consultants very much. As my experience mostly falls
> in
> > > the Oracle domain, I thought this would be a good place to ponder
> this
> > > issue.
> > >
> > > I thought I would scribe some of my thoughts to provoke the
> discussion.
> > > Some may be a little contentious, to shake the bag a bit, so to
> speak:
> > >
> > > Q1. Who commissions a consultant?
> > > A1. Your boss - somebody with enough approval authority to pay for
> the
> > > service. This is the first bone of contention - is it true that
> when a
> > > consultant appears, he/she is not entirely expected/wanted by the
> > > people doing the work?
> > > Nobody can dispute that you really need help once in a while, for
> any
> > > number of reasons. How CHEAP would consulting help need to be in
> order
> > > to allow the purchasing decision to fall back into the hands of the
> > > guy/gal with hands on keyboards? Would this kind of model make the
> help
> > > more welcome?
> > >
> > > Q2. Why do consultants get commissioned in the first place?
> > > A2. Bandwidth. Surely most of the value that a consultant brings is
> > > already available in an increasing number of online resources? Is a
> > > consultant not a redundant figure? What possible extra value can a
> > > consultant bring? Is it purely the case that there is not enough
> time
> > > to surf for the answers?
> > >
> > > Q3. Are consultants good enough to rehire?
> > > A3. Mostly not. This results in a large proportion of the chargeable
> > > hours being spent by the consultant finding his/her feet, only to
> never
> > > return. Net result to the permanent employee: lots of wasted time,
> and
> > > only a small gain made.
> > >
> > > Q4. What do consultants NOT offer as a service?
> > > A4. What people actually need. Things like a nicely organized
> approach
> > > to performance analysis, complete tools for space management, and so
> > > on. Consultants enjoy being enigmas, and cherry picking the nice
> work,
> > > like narrow-band performance investigations, and the best bits of
> > > architecture work.
> > >
> > > Am I wrong, or are these common feelings? If I were a consultant, I
> > > would want to know what I could do to be a shining light - perhaps
> > > asking the following questions in addition to those above:
> > >
> > > What are your most common performance problems?
> > > What duties takes the most time in your job?
> > > What duties do you dislike the most?
> > > What can I do to help?
> > >
> > > Just my two pennies!
> > >
> > > James
> > >
> > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> > > Before you buy.
> >
>
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
>
>
Received on Tue Nov 23 1999 - 14:48:05 CST