Consulting vs Real Industry
Which one do you work for? The consulting or real industry?
There are pros & cons for both. Some people believe that to start career we have to work for consulting company, such as Accenture for IT services or PWC for audit. Yet, on the other side, people want to jump in to the industry for getting the more real situation on the industry itself. The real situation here refers to the market, competitors, stakeholders, etc.
Some advantages working for consulting companies:
- Learn more technical skills, even becoming expert in the certain area (ex: SAP, accounting)
- Manage the client independently, deal with time constraint (catch up the deadline)
Some disadvantages working for consulting companies:
- 24/7 workforce must be ready (overtime is very common here :p)
- Compensation based on allowance (travel cost) and we can’t choose the client (even sometimes we need to deal with “jerk”)
Some advantages working for real industry:
- Ability to manage the contract & resources, including coordination with third-party or outsourcing
- Work-life balance (relatively), if compared to consulting companies
Some disadvantages working for real industry:
- Learn few applicable technical skills since we deal more with strategic planning
- The scope of work can be very modular so sometimes it’s difficult to get the whole picture
Notes: Here I’m not talking about entrepreneur, although it can be viewed as the real industry itself. This article is written based on my experience working in IT consulting company for one year and currently I jump in to the real industry.
Image taken here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iwouldstay/84832859/
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defindal
April 29, 2009 at 5:39 am
daftarin tulisan mu ke http://www.freedomtoblog.com/add_blog.php
(klo comment dimoderasi yah ?)
defindal
April 29, 2009 at 5:40 am
Interesting. I never work as consultant before, but I’ve seen how their work was. I agree with your opinion about the technical skills in real industry is not much and the scope of work is quite small. But the good thing in real industry is, you relatively have more time for your family or yourself.
The other bad things for real industry is, sometimes, we can do our work without have a good understanding about what we are working for, which is not good for yourself and the company.
Brahmasta
April 29, 2009 at 7:40 am
@def: this referred site is like Twitter, isn’t it? thx for the info!
@bram: agree, the best part is “we have more time for your family or yourself”
baraqatax
April 29, 2009 at 8:16 am