Comment by raw_anon_1111 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by raw_anon_1111 | Hacker News Reader

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I work in cloud consulting + app dev. I’m always responsible for the full life cycle of a project - team lead, discovery sessions with the clients, working with them through the project and handoff.

I can now do everything by myself on most projects. Up to ones that would have taken at least 2-3 other people before. Before I would have had to delegate it just because I couldn’t do it all by myself on time. I know how to develop (professionally did 30 years) and I know cloud (professionally for 8 years). I just didn’t have time.

On the other hand, I haven’t done web dev in a decade. But I can vibe code an internal website for operations and authentication via Amazon Cognito. It’s just a free feature that I give them even when it’s not in the contract

Has it affected how you calculate/charge your rates in any way?

I don’t have a good comparison of what rates are like for independent consultants. I have only worked full time salaried for consulting departments - at AWS directly (Professional Services - full time blue badge RSU earning employee) and now for a third party AWS partner.

But let’s say I make more as a staff consultant considering my actual billed hours, benefits (401K, health insurance, paid time off etc) than I would make working independently and I always know how much I’m going to get paid.

But I will say in today’s cloud consulting environment, it is a race to the bottom unless you can lead projects and even then there are relatively few high paying (over $200K with benefits and 80% utilization not including PTO) outside of being a full time employee working in the consulting divisions of AWS, Google (they had an RTO mandate so I ignored recruiters) or maybe Oracle.

The only reason they can justify American rates for someone like me who knows cloud but who is mostly a developer is because I can lead projects and churn out code quickly - thanks to AI.

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