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Full Time Employment vs Consultancy

 
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Hi, I have five months experience in my I.T. career... I know that isn't much experience but I could guarantee my employer a high set of skills. I recently quit my job about two months ago. Now I'm just wondering since It just came into my mind about doing consultancy (with attachment with a recruitment firm). Would this help me boost my career? Or would I better of wait to be employed by a full time employer? I thought consultancy would be good since I'd be handling different projects... But that's only for a short time (2-3 months and some for about a year). If I wanted to go to countries like Dubai, US or Canada someday... Which would be a better option? Thanks!
 
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Hi

My first instinct is that you would be better being in a consultancy at first to get exposure to real world delivery. this isnt just about technical ability, but also soft skills, understanding commercial drivers, how to add value. All of these things are easier learnt as an employee.

A good employer will offer you training. As a contractor you will have to do that yourself. Also, ask yourself who your competition is. Can you compete? Contracting pays more, partly because there is more risk.

My �0.02 worth, get the experience then decide.

Hope this helps

Ramen
 
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I'd say, do consulting while you're young and single.
Once you have a family, kids etc, the travel takes a toll on you (most consultant positions require a lot of travel !).
 
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I did consultancy for 5 years, decided I liked a fixed position better after that.
Seeing lots of projects can be fun, but you're never really at home anywhere. You rarely have the satisfaction of seeing a project through to completion, you're almost always called in as the hitman to fix a problem or temporarilly replace someone who suddenly became unavailable (death, longterm illness, not the nicest reasons to enter a team).

I had a permanent position with a consultancy firm, who paid me even when they had no work for me. Best of both worlds really, and not something that's done a lot these days.
If you can get that, and you have a good employer, you should get ample training because it increases your value to your employer (and thus the price they can charge their customers for your services).
But many contracting firms will ignore employee training, instead milking you for as many hours on-site with customers as possible until you're useless because you lack training in the technologies that are in demand.
At that time you'll be dumped, either just discarded like an old pair of shoes (fired...) or find yourself pushed into deadend jobs with no job satisfaction and given trouble everywhere in an attempt to get you to quit.
 
Timothy Sam
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Thanks! I appreciate your inputs. Are there more? This is really helping me a lot. Please don't hesitate to post...
 
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Consultancy morphed into different versions in past decade.

In USA, companies preferred contract workers because of less long-term expense as compared to regular employees.

These contract workers usually are given benefits by their consulting firms, the same benefits that a regular employee gets.

But in other countries, a consultant will get the salary, and nothing else.

You will usually decide based on your personal preference based on the benefits given by these companies in your country.
 
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