Re:Ask HN: Difference from being a consultant and employee?
by nickjj on Thursday June 07, 2018 @09:01AM
(#17255357)
I do freelance / consulting work (but I'm self employed with no employees).
Most gigs start with "ok, we have this problem..." and my job is to figure out how to solve it. It could be anything from fleshing out technical details to implementing the solution myself. It really depends on what the client wants.
I never worked an employee position but I would imagine if you're hired to do either one for someone else, you would be expected to interact with your company's customers directly as a consultant as opposed to an employee where you'd likely only be told to write XYZ code away from any direct customers.
I learn something new on every gig I take, but I'm mainly learning from my clients, not other consultants since I am a solo consultant. Although I do learn from other consultants in more social means (talking with other consultants, etc.). It's just we rarely work together on the same job and every job is very different.
Most gigs start with "ok, we have this problem..." and my job is to figure out how to solve it. It could be anything from fleshing out technical details to implementing the solution myself. It really depends on what the client wants.
I never worked an employee position but I would imagine if you're hired to do either one for someone else, you would be expected to interact with your company's customers directly as a consultant as opposed to an employee where you'd likely only be told to write XYZ code away from any direct customers.
I learn something new on every gig I take, but I'm mainly learning from my clients, not other consultants since I am a solo consultant. Although I do learn from other consultants in more social means (talking with other consultants, etc.). It's just we rarely work together on the same job and every job is very different.