Salaried consultant, good or bad idea? What's it like?

[mikeford]

It's not contract. He's a paid employee of an IT consulting firm.

Ugh, this always sucks. Do all the work, get 1/3 of the money, and on a salary when the client is billed hourly, plain nuts.

Hired or contract, many jobs work out to be client hour billed, sure makes the bosses rich.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

It's not contract. He's a paid employee of an IT consulting firm.

It's a contract. He will get a W-4. Consultants get a 1099.

I've been doing both since the early 90s. There is a difference.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Ugh, this always sucks. Do all the work, get 1/3 of the money, and on a salary when the client is billed hourly, plain nuts.

Hired or contract, many jobs work out to be client hour billed, sure makes the bosses rich.

This is kind of what I was thinking....not sure how I feel about working 40-45+ without the extra OT in there.

Sorry, all those posts were from my phone ... now that I am at my PC.

The job is consulting...basically client comes in, says our infrastructure sucks ... help. I give them options, they say too much $$, not enough whatever, and I migrate for them. I then support them afterwards, if they run into PC issues...it's kind of an all in one shop. PC + servers, etc.

It's a small shop local to Minnesota, not an outsourced business.

It is salaried, but I forgot if it was paid OT or not...I am pretty sure not.

I've got a few other prospects that actually moved to flying me out, so i'll see how those fair ... GF wants outta snow country so those have precedence .

I might just tell them I will hold off for now, and will come back to it if current job sucks or goes downhill... as the money is good, and job is OK... I just don't see the skillset used at other places. (tomcat, apache, linux admin)

 

[drebo]

It's a contract. He will get a W-4. Consultants get a 1099.

I've been doing both since the early 90s. There is a difference.

My god, you're an idiot.

He's paid not by the client. If he were paid by the client to complete a particular task/whatever, it'd be contract work.

But he's not. He'll be a salaried full time employee of a company that happens to do IT work for clients. The arrangement between the company and the client doesn't affect his employment status in the slightest.

A contract employee has a contract. He will not have a contract. He will be a salaried employee, getting a W-2.

And, trust me, having worked in both environments, being salaried is far preferable to being commissioned in this case. But, like I said, the company you work for is everything.

I don't work 50+ hour weeks as the senior engineer of the company I work for, and I didn't at my last job either.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

This is kind of what I was thinking....not sure how I feel about working 40-45+ without the extra OT in there.

Sorry, all those posts were from my phone ... now that I am at my PC.

The job is consulting...basically client comes in, says our infrastructure sucks ... help. I give them options, they say too much $$, not enough whatever, and I migrate for them. I then support them afterwards, if they run into PC issues...it's kind of an all in one shop. PC + servers, etc.

It's a small shop local to Minnesota, not an outsourced business.

It is salaried, but I forgot if it was paid OT or not...I am pretty sure not.

I've got a few other prospects that actually moved to flying me out, so i'll see how those fair ... GF wants outta snow country so those have precedence .

I might just tell them I will hold off for now, and will come back to it if current job sucks or goes downhill... as the money is good, and job is OK... I just don't see the skillset used at other places. (tomcat, apache, linux admin)

Let's get this out of the way so it is clear. Consulting with clients does not mean one is working as a consultant. Consulting does not involve how you work, it is how you are paid.

The difference is that if you are working through a firm on contract they are billing the client and paying a portion of that fee to you. They also pay the FICA, SS, State taxes, etc. iow, the firm is the consultant.

When you are directly working as a consultant a third party does not get a cut of the pay. It all goes to you. You are also responsible for all incidentals involved in receiving that pay. On a contract job that pays 75 to 80K a consultant would be paid 140 - 160K+.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

My god, you're an idiot.

He's paid not by the client. If he were paid by the client to complete a particular task/whatever, it'd be contract work.

But he's not. He'll be a salaried full time employee of a company that happens to do IT work for clients. The arrangement between the company and the client doesn't affect his employment status in the slightest.

A contract employee has a contract. He will not have a contract. He will be a salaried employee, getting a W-2.

And, trust me, having worked in both environments, being salaried is far preferable to being commissioned in this case. But, like I said, the company you work for is everything.

I don't work 50+ hour weeks as the senior engineer of the company I work for, and I didn't at my last job either.

If he's working through an IT firm he will have a contract. Good lord, I've done it enough times to know since I've been doing this for over 20 years. I've also done direct consulting work where you receive a 1099. I've also done salaried work for companies, and have been employed by the company where you fill out a W-4 and receive a W-2 at the end of the year, which makes one a direct, salaried employee.

Idiot indeed. I don't think you actually understand the difference.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Don't do it -- as others have said, your time will be abused. My opinion is that if a company bills for your time, you should get paid for that time.

 

[BikeJunkie]

As long as the hours aren't crazy, I say go for it. I'd love to be salaried. It would make invoicing simpler and I could justify vacation easier. But then again, I typically work routine 40 hour weeks these days. The only real OT I have to put in is when I'm releasing updates, and when those occur is largely under my control.

A previous client of mine was higher stress and significantly more after hours work. No way in HELL I'd have agreed to a salary arrangement without a substantial raise.

 

[child of wonder]

I've worked as a full time, salaried employee for a VAR in the Twin Cities for 4 years. Trust me when I say, don't get tied up in a long term staff augmentation contract like that. You'll be the disposal cog and your skills will suffer as you get drawn into the mundane tasks the client wants you to do.

If you want to work as a consultant of some kind, I'd look into jobs as an implementation engineer with a VAR. My career has skyrocketed in the last 4 years and my stress has decreased. Best job move I ever made.

 

[Ventanni]

You see, here's the thing; the reality is, you're only as good as today's performance. You work 55-60 hours as salary and all you're going to get is maybe a verbal "thank you," because all you're seen as doing is your job, and that's what they pay you for in the first place. But salary positions are calculated on a 40-hour work week basis, and I'm sorry, you're worth your own time. It's not being selfish or just trying to get away with the bare minimum, it's your time. For services provided, you can guarantee that any business is going to bill up to the minute of their time worked, and you should be entitled to do the same.

Stand firm and negotiate OT.

 

[xeemzor]

I've worked as a full time, salaried employee for a VAR in the Twin Cities for 4 years. Trust me when I say, don't get tied up in a long term staff augmentation contract like that. You'll be the disposal cog and your skills will suffer as you get drawn into the mundane tasks the client wants you to do.

If you want to work as a consultant of some kind, I'd look into jobs as an implementation engineer with a VAR. My career has skyrocketed in the last 4 years and my stress has decreased. Best job move I ever made.

It's way better to be a master at a few things then a generalist in everything.

 

[bignateyk]

Salaried consultant? That sounds like a terrible idea. You're going to get screwed over in every possible way. No benefits, and no overtime.

 

[bignateyk]

It's not contract. He's a paid employee of an IT consulting firm.

If he were actually an employee he would get benefits.

 

[JM Aggie08]

That seems like an oxymoron...

As long as you're not forced into uncompensated overtime and the salary is competitive, I guess go it...?

 

[sourceninja]

I do salaried consulting. You just need to know how to manage your time to make it worthwhile. Some weeks I might work 60 hours, so I just cut my hours back during the next week or two. As long as they are ok with that it works out fine.

I'd rather be hourly, but hourly IT just doesn't exist around here anymore.

 

[ultimatebob]

RUN!!!!!! (Hint: that means 45 average, 50 often.

Yeah... "40-45" hours a week can mean anything from 40 to 60 hours a week in my past experience.

I had one sys admin job where I ended up working 80 hours a week doing production monitoring and break/fix for a few weeks when everyone else took vacation, but at least I got paid by the hour for that gig.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Salaried in most cases means you get no pay or compensation for being dumb enough to work double time. Top person I know in IT doing PM and SA work on major clients for the company first year worked 40 to 50 hours a week average and got a 20% bonus for doing an incredible job. Worked 50 to 60 hours a week the next year, majorly bailed out the company on two fubar projects they took over, and got a 10% bonus due to company wide lid. This year, 60 to 70 hours a week, and negotiating with company about keeping vacation days unable to be taken.

The reward for hard work at most companies is not financial, its more work.

Ding ding ding

Although there is some companies that really reward their employees for great work, most do above.

Going up and beyond = more work and less life.

Then we wonder why we have generations of slackers and "bare minimum" type of workers.

It's simply not worth doing anything but that.

 

[ViviTheMage]

My god, you're an idiot.

He's paid not by the client. If he were paid by the client to complete a particular task/whatever, it'd be contract work.

But he's not. He'll be a salaried full time employee of a company that happens to do IT work for clients. The arrangement between the company and the client doesn't affect his employment status in the slightest.

A contract employee has a contract. He will not have a contract. He will be a salaried employee, getting a W-2.

And, trust me, having worked in both environments, being salaried is far preferable to being commissioned in this case. But, like I said, the company you work for is everything.

I don't work 50+ hour weeks as the senior engineer of the company I work for, and I didn't at my last job either.

This is exactly right... They said 40 hours is expected, but you can see up to 45.

I've worked as a full time, salaried employee for a VAR in the Twin Cities for 4 years. Trust me when I say, don't get tied up in a long term staff augmentation contract like that. You'll be the disposal cog and your skills will suffer as you get drawn into the mundane tasks the client wants you to do.

If you want to work as a consultant of some kind, I'd look into jobs as an implementation engineer with a VAR. My career has skyrocketed in the last 4 years and my stress has decreased. Best job move I ever made.

I was hoping you'd reply ... I remember you said you were in a similar position.

 

[child of wonder]

This is exactly right... They said 40 hours is expected, but you can see up to 45.

I was hoping you'd reply ... I remember you said you were in a similar position.

PM me if you want to talk in more detail. We can even chat by phone or grab a beer sometime.

But those long term staff augs are killers if you let them be. One of my co-workers was offered a gig where he got to sit at home and work remotely for a large client in a staff augmentation role. He just helped them with their day to day tasks, maintenance, etc. After 2+ of doing this, his skills had atrophied in other areas and he required extensive training to get back up to speed. Unfortunately, when our company decided to let a few people go, he was one of them because he was 2 years behind the times. Partly the company's fault for letting him stay in that gig so long, partly his fault for getting comfortable and not wanting out.

 

[ViviTheMage]

PM me if you want to talk in more detail. We can even chat by phone or grab a beer sometime.

But those long term staff augs are killers if you let them be. One of my co-workers was offered a gig where he got to sit at home and work remotely for a large client in a staff augmentation role. He just helped them with their day to day tasks, maintenance, etc. After 2+ of doing this, his skills had atrophied in other areas and he required extensive training to get back up to speed. Unfortunately, when our company decided to let a few people go, he was one of them because he was 2 years behind the times. Partly the company's fault for letting him stay in that gig so long, partly his fault for getting comfortable and not wanting out.

Yeah, I can definitely see that. I actually let them know I am probably going to keep looking. I am not sure the job style is my thing right now.

 

[alkemyst]

$75-80K is nice, but no benefits. You will be paying your own health, 401k, etc. If you have a spouse with health care you can ride on, that solves a lot of the problem today with so few companies throwing out bonuses.

 

[ViviTheMage]

$75-80K is nice, but no benefits. You will be paying your own health, 401k, etc. If you have a spouse with health care you can ride on, that solves a lot of the problem today with so few companies throwing out bonuses.

Actually had medical and a 401k, haha.

 

[brianmanahan]

$75-80K is nice, but no benefits. You will be paying your own health, 401k, etc. If you have a spouse with health care you can ride on, that solves a lot of the problem today with so few companies throwing out bonuses.

thats why i stick with the company i am at... their pay is average, but they include 401k, cheap & good health/vision/dental insurance, pension, health/fitness center, decent amount of vacation, etc.

also every year there is a bonus that usually is %10-%30 of your pay, so thats nice.

 

[alkemyst]

Actually had medical and a 401k, haha.

It seems you are only a contractor then in the sense they can easily fire you. If the job is a good raise for you, it's a great opportunity.

 

[xeemzor]

thats why i stick with the company i am at... their pay is average, but they include 401k, cheap & good health/vision/dental insurance, pension, health/fitness center, decent amount of vacation, etc.

also every year there is a bonus that usually is %10-%30 of your pay, so thats nice.

Is the bonus fairly arbitrary or is it somewhat performance based?