July 19, 2014 at 12:14 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A IT Consultant for our Times
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
July 20, 2014 at 1:10 pm
Good for Mark that he can pull whatever hat is in the trendy bin, put it on and make a grand a day. I doubt, based on the description that Phil gives of him in this piece, that I would hire him for anything. My first impression is that he is a shyster, capable of saying whatever he can sell. Even if he is competent and legitimate, he still offers me little inspiration, and I doubt that he offers much of a model for the typical IT worker.
Jay Bienvenu | http://bienv.com | http://twitter.com/jbnv
July 20, 2014 at 1:41 pm
jbnv (7/20/2014)
Good for Mark that he can pull whatever hat is in the trendy bin, put it on and make a grand a day. I doubt, based on the description that Phil gives of him in this piece, that I would hire him for anything. My first impression is that he is a shyster, capable of saying whatever he can sell. Even if he is competent and legitimate, he still offers me little inspiration, and I doubt that he offers much of a model for the typical IT worker.
Met and worked with many "Mark"s through the years. In those occasions I've sometimes thought of Desiderius Erasmus's Adagia, "in regione caecorum rex est luscus" or "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". It is far too easy to be blinded by one's own environment.
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July 21, 2014 at 12:25 am
Worked with a VM consultant who spent a week setting up the VMs proving that MSSQL is supported and stating it was robust on his configuration of MS Windows & VMWare. 10 minutes after I got my hands on it, I could prove that MSSQL could and would get consistently corrupted in the way he had configured the VMs.
The result even with a provable demo: I obviously didn't know as much as the consultant because my configuration couldn't have been identical to the consultants. Strange as it was his copy I had restored.
There is a bias that says if you pay £1000/day then the person must be worth £1000/day or else they wouldn't be being paid. Says it all, doesn't it.
July 21, 2014 at 2:04 am
I find it amusing to think that it's more cost effective to spend say 60k on a 3-month contract for someone like that than it is to educate the CFO!
July 21, 2014 at 2:09 am
Eirikur Eiriksson (7/20/2014)
jbnv (7/20/2014)
Good for Mark that he can pull whatever hat is in the trendy bin, put it on and make a grand a day. I doubt, based on the description that Phil gives of him in this piece, that I would hire him for anything. My first impression is that he is a shyster, capable of saying whatever he can sell. Even if he is competent and legitimate, he still offers me little inspiration, and I doubt that he offers much of a model for the typical IT worker.Met and worked with many "Mark"s through the years. In those occasions I've sometimes thought of Desiderius Erasmus's Adagia, "in regione caecorum rex est luscus" or "in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". It is far too easy to be blinded by one's own environment.
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Agreed. I've had the misfortune of working with more than my fair share of blow-hard consultants. They talk the talk very well, and manage to dazzle the people doing the hiring, but after that...
July 21, 2014 at 2:55 am
If you are a CIO/IT Director trying to avoid committing to the latest BIG THING, hiring a consultant or two can prove to be a good strategy. Unless the consultant is very good, she/he will alienate the staff from the BIG THING, and produce reports that are completely opaque. One can thereby prevent over-committing to the BIG THING whilst seeming impartial and open to new ideas in IT. The price seems high in terms of consultants fees, but it is much cheaper than adopting a BIG THING at the wrong time. It makes a virtue out of inaction and It also seems to stop evangelists and luddites dead in their tracks. It is rather like governments calling public inquiries.
I agree though that Technical Consultants who profess to know an area of knowledge can cause major damage if they aren't competent. the advantage is that they can be escorted off the premises within minutes. Also the company that hires them has legal redress in many companies
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
July 21, 2014 at 6:01 am
In my career I've encountered consultants from company "AC", now renamed company "A", that have driven corporations into the ground with "advice". Their prime skill is the ability to play golf and drink with C level executives.
But on the smaller scale, there are plenty of local companies that could use some true professional level advice from experienced IT pros, not snake oil salesmen.
July 21, 2014 at 6:25 am
Phil,
No matter how you try to justify what your friend does, he is just a B.S. artist. I did a fair amount of B.S.ing for large chunks of change. But, my conscious got the best of me and now I do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay in a small shop and I feel good about it. This story shows that the coporate world is still as ethically challenged as ever.
Tom
July 21, 2014 at 7:32 am
I think that there is a place for specialist consultants and if they are to be utilised then they should have a strict remit and a fixed cost contract be it in terms of a fixed number of days at a given rate to produce an agreed deliverable or a single fixed fee to produce the agreed deliverable by a certain date.
I agree with the sentiment here that some "consultants" wander about, waving abstract whitepapers and provide "pie in the sky" recommendations which specify nothing specific (or at least, measurable).
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
July 21, 2014 at 8:33 am
Your friend is a big part of whats wrong with this industry.....
July 24, 2014 at 10:27 am
I wonder what kind of CV he's shopping to get jobs in the current Next Big Thing when his experience is all over the board.
July 24, 2014 at 10:31 am
JustMarie (7/24/2014)
I wonder what kind of CV he's shopping to get jobs in the current Next Big Thing when his experience is all over the board.
Guess he merits a Master in Creative Presentation (politics)
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July 24, 2014 at 5:18 pm
chrisn-585491 (7/21/2014)
In my career I've encountered consultants from company "AC", now renamed company "A", that have driven corporations into the ground with "advice". Their prime skill is the ability to play golf and drink with C level executives.But on the smaller scale, there are plenty of local companies that could use some true professional level advice from experienced IT pros, not snake oil salesmen.
I too have have had the pleasure of running into those guys. Several years ago a project came into a company that I was working at via the golf course\C-level executive route. In the end the project failed and cost the company in excess of $20M. The CIO charged with implementing the project was exiled to Lower Slobovia and never heard from again.
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