I've been following Whitney Hess as she journeys into the world of full-time consulting. Though she's always done some consulting work on the side, the pressure of business income being the only income is a whole different life.
In my life, I've had side contract projects for a long time, lasting anywhere from a few months to several years. I never felt insecure about these roles. They were temporary, yet so long-term I never really thought about their end dates until I felt it was time for me to wrap up. There was never a final deliverable as it was all on-going work and because of this, I felt like I didn't have as much of an impact as I would have liked.
What I want are short-term projects. I want to create a project plan, do some fancy research, present my findings, and wrap up with a client. I want the variety of multiple clients. I want the notoriety of outstanding, fantastic work. I seem to want it all.
I really don't.
At this point in my life, I want the security of a salaried paycheck. I want inexpensive healthcare and an employer-matched 401k. I don't want to spend hours each week pitching my schpiel to people who really want a marketing guru or web designer.
That said, I do want to do more consulting work. It's been almost a year that I've taken a break and it's time I get back into things with a couple of small research projects. I don't see myself as a full-time consultant anytime in the near future but I'm excited to be back and even more excited to have my husband working alongside me as an engineering analyst. Having that technical expertise will be invaluable in my usability work.
1 hour ago
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Hey trust me, I understand. If I was at a different point in my life, I might not be so keen on the consulting stuff -- unpredictable, erratic, unstable. But you're married and have a mortgage and want to start a family and have lots of obligations that I don't. So that's why I decided to do it now, before it might no longer be an option. And I'm loving every minute of it :)
Whitney,
I definitely admire what you're doing and similarly, if I was at a different point in my life, I would more strongly look at full-time consulting. My former manager turned to full-time consulting (home-owner with two kids) by starting with one long-term contract to help him move away from the security of a salaried job. It seems like it's worked really well for him and might be a way I can transition in the future.
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