what the heck does a consultant do?

[Croton]

do they just sit there waiting for people to consult them?

 

[Locutus of Board]

He consults people.

What did you think?

 

[yakko]

They wait for you to call and tell you what you want to hear for a large amount of money.

 

[kranky]

May I borrow your watch?
Now, for $50, I'll tell you the time.
Thanks. Here's your watch back.
Have a nice day.

 

[CyberSax]

Watch that movie Office Space, that'll give you a good idea of what a consultant does.

 

[Ausm]

Makes alot of cash bull$hitting usually

Ausm

 

[Mday]

LOL kranky... =)

 

[Croton]

seriously.....

they just sit around and wait to 'consult' people?

sh!t...........

 

[Harvey]

I am an independent, self-employed electronic design engineer, and I do consulting. I offer my services to those who need a design and either don't have the know-how in house or have more work than their staff can cover in a given time period. In other words, I'm a gun for hire.

I charge a lot more than the companies pay their staff engineers, but they don't pay benefits, retirement, or anything else, other than for the actual time I spend on the gig. Hopefully, I'm good enough at what I do that there will continue to be a need for my services.

I call it being gainfully unemployed.

 

[DABANSHEE]

I worked at a place where they were paying an IT consultant $1200 an hour (that's without any decimal points & that was back in about 1988) & he was employed there for about 8 months, he advised us to change everything arround & it seems he lefted just before everything when up to buggery.

So in short they get payed a small fortune to either tell you what you want to hear or to tell you to change everything arround, then they leave just before everything goes to buggery.

Hey Harvey is the Golrush GFD, your own design? What do you think of this 'Tweaking Device 2' GFD, its 'self powered' & only has only 8 dipsitches (consequently there's no dipswitch duplication, like there are in some other GFDs where 2 rows of dipswitchs have to be set up the same or symmetrically opposite each other)?

 

[RaDragon]

depends what type of consulting you're looking for. generally, consultants do tend to tell people what they think is the 'good' thing to do. most of the time, they overcharge.

 

[FlashG]

With the rise in corporate downsizing and retirements most businesses rely on experts like "Harvy" to tell them what to do. It's good work if you can get it. Most of them have to travel extensively.

 

[vi edit]

I got hired on to clean up what the consultant screwed up.

Unfortunately, my company had already been taken to the cleaners

 

[FlashG]

vi_edit,

So did they learn there lesson and hire you full time?

 

[ratkil]

I have noticed there are two types of consultants. There are those that know what they are doing, and there are those that are good "talkers". The latter are usually fantastically successful, and this is for one reason. Most people that have an idea for a company, are idea people. They have the drive and ambition to start a company, but not the knowledge to maintain it, or at least certain aspects of it. The big problem with these people, is that since they are desperate for their baby (company) to make it. Therefore, when some smooth talker walks up and tells them what they want to hear, they buy in big time. I have seen this over and over. It is almost sickening just how gullible, these supposedly successful business owners are. The really amazing thing is that they won't even bother to check references on these consultants, they will just hand over the money..........

 

[DABANSHEE]

So that's why Intel named a chip core after your town, Red?

 

[Pocatello]

Because he lives in it?

 

[reitz]

Red, I never would have guessed that you have a degree in accounting.

 

[thebestMAX]

They are the same as an expert.

Definition of an expert--Someone from out of town.