In the 1950s Richard Boone was the “Man in Black,” a high-class hit man who graced television screens in the CBS western, “Have Gun — Will Travel.” In the 1990s, a new class of hired guns has emerged: consultants.
Companies, struggling with rapidly changing technology and finding it cheaper and more efficient than full-time employees, are relying increasingly on consultants. The trend has created a demand for highly skilled people who don’t mind bouncing from job to job.
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“We are the new hired guns,” said Dr. Harry Keller, who has 25 years experience in software and other types of technical consulting. “It’s an exciting world to be in.”
That’s not to say that full timers are being phased out. But experts say employers are starting to change their thinking about how their work gets done. Once, companies wanted to do everything themselves, hiring consultants only in emergencies. Now, they’re becoming more inclined to contract out — saving money, and still getting the job done.
“Consultants of the ’60s and ’70s were doing mundane (work),” said Tim Southwick, a technical recruiter for Eliassen Group Inc., which recruits IT consultants. “In the 90s it’s just the opposite: consultants are doing leading edge stuff.”
Client server development, database development, quality assurance, software testing, and anything to do with the Y2K problem — all such skills are in high demand. The demand is so high that consultants are often able to find jobs without traveling more than any other commuters, those who work in the staffing industry say.
Still, consulting is not for everyone. Someone who likes security, coworkers, and an office with a window would likely prefer a full-time job. But Keller said he and other successful consultants are people who are “turned on by new challenges all the time, who don’t mind sitting in the hot seat in interviews, who like to talk about themselves and are proud of their work.”
“They absolutely love the challenge of going in and solving a new problem, being a hero, and riding off into the sunset,” said Max Steiner, national public relations coordinator for the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses, a trade group for high tech staffing companies. Indeed, consultants are often just as interested in the degree of challenge of the project as they are with money and other perks, Southwick noted.
“A lot of times, it’s the sexy technology (that draws consultants to jobs),” he said. “There are always people who just want to generate the dough, but most consultants are looking for one really neat project to work on.”
Employers, on the other hand, are often more interested in hiring someone who has just completed the exact same project that they have now. That reduces their risk. They also like the flexibility that accompanies contracting — no benefits, no training, no problem getting rid of the employee if he or she does not work out. When the contact is up, so is the relationship. The company may also terminate a contractor before the project is over, if needed.
Some people even say the consulting industry is recession-proof: when the economy is good, more people are hired for more projects; when it’s bad, they give jobs that would have gone to full-time employees to consultants. Not everyone is enamored with this theory, however. Howard Stein, co-founder and co-Chief Executive Officer of AETEA Information Technology Inc. a Rockville, Md. staffing company with offices in Manhattan, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, noted that firms tend to hire more high tech consultants when they start to downsize their full-time staff. But he also noted that it is just as easy — if not easier — to fire contracting consultants.
“I think it’s a double-edged sword,” Stein said.
Brian Hoffman, a managing partner in the Information Technology division of Winter, Wyman and Co., a recruiting firm that places full-time staff only, indicated that he is not overly concerned with the current trend toward contracting.
“The impact for us is that it dilutes the candidates threshold more than on the client (company) side,” Hoffman said, adding that some companies will say, “‘I’ll take a permanent person first, but if I can’t find one I’ll take a contractor.'”
Hoffman added that temporary to full-time conversions are also fairly common. And Stein also noted that his company does not stand in the way of contract employees who want join a company full time.
“We don’t want to stand in the way of a happy marriage,” he said. “We try to foster what’s good for the consultant.”
