Ask HN: What's the value of consulting experience?

My last two employers did consulting as their business model. I am a much, much better engineer for having a few years of professional experience, and my users are much better off for it. It is why my website doesn't crash on a daily basis. It was an opportunity to learn workflows, practical system architecture, build processes, source control, disciplined use of processes/tools, etc, all that stuff that the CS curriculum doesn't cover but will totally wreck you if you ignore.

I also got web development experience, which I was severely lacking at graduation.

Something which I didn't learn while working at the consulting firm but picked up when I actually started consulting: selling stuff, negotiation, moving orders through the pipeline, and the ability to look a CEO in the eye and not be reduced to a quivering blob of Jello. These all help.

Consulting is like a honey trap or golden handcuffs. The better you are at what you do, the harder it is to get out. Plus the more you earn the more you spend, and the more trapped you become.

All you'll learn at a big consulting firm (or any large corporate) is how to enjoy a high income and learn to accept getting bogged down by corporate bureaucracy. You'll pick up more useful skills faster elsewhere without learning the bad habits.

Get out there and make something people want instead.

well said.

The main benefit you get from being a consultant for a while is that you get to learn just how much BS lies at the heart of most "consulting", as well as the companies that like to hire (tons and tons of) consultants.

That is, mostly consultants are hired for (as other have said here) psychological / CYA reasons, rather than for the actual business value of the advice they provide (which is often mediocre). And of course when it comes to technology products, the actual (source code) contributions of consultants, dollar for dollar, is often especially low, indeed.

Another nifty thing you'll learn when doing consulting, which is hard to learn otherwise, is that the higher rate you charge, the more people value you and you work, for some reason. Which is a very useful thing to have a visceral, bone-marrow-level grasp for, indeed.

To be clear, these would be management consulting gigs, albeit in some cases focusing on technology business problems. Some combination of strategy and process/operations.

They also all charge quite high rates, I would imagine, so hopefully my work would be valued - if not valuable.

You seem to have figured out the pros/cons very well already.

I'm going to be practical and suggest you take the job and save some money (assuming you don't have tons of it already). You will need to survive a few months without income if you're going to work on a startup.

PS: Make sure you don't get too comfortable with your new job! Try to keep an inexpensive lifestyle or otherwise, you might never again get the courage to jump in startup land.

This is a big problem, yes. The momentum that you build up. I say it's like getting on a train. You can always get off later, it just gets harder and harder, and you are less and less able to leave for riskier or less immediately lucrative things.

For instance, I am probably trading away the chance to go spend a year doing more intensive language study in China if I take such an offer.

One reason to try to do _something_ is that, as of right now, I really don't have much runway to actually start something. I guess I could try to put together some brilliant MVP in time for S'11 YC, but... :)

Funny, I just came back from a 4 months stay in China. It was the best experience I had in many years.

I was there last year for a semester and had a really great time. The window of opportunity for 外国人 to come and really be entrepreneurial is less open than it was in the past, I think, but there are certainly still opportunities. This is one frame of opportunity where I think some previous experience could really be helpful; working in a garage with friends on an internet something-or-other, less so.

Large consulting firms deliver low value at high prices. The clients hire them to cover their ass. The partners in the firm rake in huge incomes. You will only learn how to work that system. Not bad if high income, high status are your priorities.

If you want to make the world a better place in some way, then just jump in the deep end now! You will learn more by doing. Keep reading HN, there's a ton of great stuff to learn.

I dont do consulting as often now, but when I do need some money, I do UI consulting. It's a little annoying IMO, especially with all the restrictions and working with someone who has no taste in design whatsoever yet they still keep on pushing their ideas forward....But, here are the somewhat positive sides I've managed to branch out from it:

* The ability to keep on working even though you want to kill someone how annoying their project seems to be.

* The ability to keep on iterating small changes which unfortunately are just warm ups to even more iterations.

* It's very annoying, even though you are probably making a good chunk of money. Great thing about it, once you move onto your project/startup(which I really suggest you do as soon as you have a proven idea and market) you'll pretty much love it and become very good at building something good.

* Oh, not to mention that you'll have a better outlook on things after you've worked on a few projects for clients.

Depends on what you mean by consulting. Accenture, deloite and friends have little to do with startups. Culturally, they may be a step backwards. You will learn a thing or two about enterprise sales at a place like that, however.

If you mean freelancing or small company consulting, then yes, you'll learn a lot of practical skills that will be directly applicable to a startup.

In a broader sense, working anywhere will help you with a future startup - some jobs will just be more useful than others. High end consulting, banking, and the like are way down on the utility list.

If you really want to do a startup and want hands-on experience, clarity and opportunity then go work with a startup. Can't find a job? Do it for free! Post an 'Offer HN'.

Noting goes better than working at a startup.

Caution: Working at a startup is addictive and can hamper your employability or comfort level at a corporate.

Problem here is that there doesn't seem to be a really good role for me anywhere. Or, better put: Startups the size I want to work at are either not on my radar, or don't seem to want my kind of services (since I don't have _so_ much obviously on tap, though I think I offer a lot!), while those that are bigger offer more narrowly functional (non-technical) roles.

On the other extreme, I did interview for a PM position with Microsoft, but because of location issues wasn't really able to follow through there further. I'd love a way to work while building out these talents more.

Dude, beggars can't be choosers. What do you mean size of startups you wanna work with? Are you referring to money invested in them?

Startup is a startup - regardless of size.

Do an OFFER HN with list of all that you can do. I am sure you will get enough insight of what kinda people need you.

I mean by number of people, that kind of thing. Maybe money is a proxy for that, but not necessarily. The key consideration is: where can I learn the most, the fastest? I am happy to work 90+ hr weeks if I feel I'm working towards something meaningful, or learning a lot. And I think I would be learning more at a start-up than at an established company of any kind, whether consulting or otherwise.

Good thoughts on making an Offer HN - I'll try that out and see how things shake out. My strategy the last few months was to try to pitch myself to different startups that I liked, mixed results. I should have networked more the last two summers in SF bay!

Also, article like this remind one that it's a great time to get involved in the startup space... or maybe a bad time! http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2010/11/17/the-daily-sta...

BTW also: you're young, and most likely have neither a family, nor a terribly serious relationship that can't buck the strain -- so go ahead, kill yourself with work for a year or two.

What type of consulting firms are you talking about?

There is a fair gamut, from the very small ( < 100 people) focused on tech, to the very large (~5000) and well-known, and some places in between that emphasize fast development and advancement.