Consulting seems unsafe.  Well, it might be.  But, less safe than what?

* When you're a consultant, your job might end suddenly and without any warning.
** ''But after the InternetBubble, we all know that any job can end that way.''

* When you're a consultant, your client considers you interchangeable with every other consultant in the market.
** ''But full-time employees now are rarely considered unique and indispensable.  As a consultant one has the opportunity to excel and differentiate one's self in a manner not usually possible as an employee.  Of course, one does actually need to out-perform one's competitors to achieve that.  And it doesn't hurt to promote.''

* When you're a consultant, you work for unpredictable corporate bureaucrats.
** ''The same people you're working for as a full-time employee.  But if you're a consultant, you can collect a whole '''set''' of them, and charge the ones who are painful to work for a '''lot''' more.''

* When you're a consultant, the salary you depend on could stop coming at any time.
** ''But you get paid a lot more, too, if you pick your clients with care.''
*** During the tech recession, many of us did/do not have much choice.

* When you're a consultant, you have to pay for your own health care, and it's very expensive.
** ''But when you get laid off, you'll have to pay COBRA, if you can, to get that health care extended until your next job.''
*** (''AmericanCulturalAssumption? I know in Australia not many companies offer health with employment packages - unless they are multi-nationals, generally based in US. Correct me if I'm wrong pls. -- SusanRoy'')

* When you're a consultant, who pays for your retirement?
** ''You do, just the same as if you got laid off and had to dip into the 401K money you wish you could have rolled over to a new job. At least most consultants pay attention to retirement.  Most of the FTEs of my acquaintance only think about it when reminded, and then only in a fuzzy sort of way.''

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Somewhere there is an article in one of the big city papers, I think Washington Post, that talks about how companies are shifting the burden of change and risk onto employees rather than absorb it themselves. The government and companies no longer want to protect anybody from the economic winds and storms. Maybe it's time to move to Europe rather than live through the second incarnation of Dickensonian Capitalism, AKA Dilbert Hell.

''It might make no difference since changes like that tend to sweep up everything.  It's just like when little warrior groups clashed with agricultural societies, and the agriculturalists had the choice to raise armies and learn to be warriors or perish.''

No, usually they traded food in exchange for being allowed to live (probably as slaves, but alive). Food was a highly sought-after item. The warriors couldn't kill the farmers because they needed to eat.

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CategoryEmployment