The Wide World of Independent Consultant Jobs

What do you think of when you imagine consulting as a career? Do you picture corporate drones who are sent out to organizations with binders full of standard operating procedures and guidelines for removing people off payrolls? Or do you envision professionals who have to struggle and hustle just to keep income flowing into the coffers on a regular basis? Consulting is a fairly broad category, so those two images of consultants certainly exist in the real world. However, consulting as a career encompasses many more types of work experiences, especially if you consider independent consulting jobs. You might be hanging on to negative images of consulting based on your personal worldview or experiences, but I'd like to let you know that there's much more to a potential career as a consultant.

Independent Consulting vs Working for a Large Firm

If you're ready to escape from the corporate treadmill, or you've already left and you don't want to go back, I would urge you to think twice about accepting a position with a large consulting firm. Sure, there is a sense of implied security that comes from working for one of the leading consulting firms, but that security is an illusion. At best, you'll be hired as a junior consultant, and it's unlikely that you'll be able to make any real, impactful decisions based on your knowledge, experience and skills. What's more, there are simply too many factors involved that can put you on the employment hot seat if you don't perform in a way that completely satisfies your corporate masters.

Independent consultant jobs are different because they allow you to determine what it takes for your clients to be successful. As an independent consultant, you can take control over the type of work you do, and you get to decide which clients you want to take on. Most importantly, a job as an independent consultant gives you the opportunity to put your accumulated knowledge and skills to work in the way that you see fit. If you're concerned about job security, you should know that all it takes is a few clients to earn a reasonable income. You can always find new clients if you require more, and you'll always have clients to fall back on if one of them decides to go in a different direction.

Some of the other advantages of independent consulting jobs include:

• The ability to create your own schedule
   

• The freedom to work from virtually any location
   

• The potential to make a difference in your community, and the world at large
   

• Freedom from elements of corporate culture that keep you from doing great work

Working with Small and Mid Size Businesses

Another tremendous advantage of working as an independent consultant is the fact that you'll work with smaller businesses that are actually nimble enough to make changes and improvements quickly. When you work for a larger firm, you might be deployed with dozens of other consultants into a situation where you may never see the fruits of your labors. By contrast, as an independent consultant, you'll be able to work directly with business leaders and key decision makers in organizations that can (and will) implement your recommendations shortly after you make them. This puts your talents to greater use, and it provides you with a greater sense of accomplishment and meaning. Furthermore, the results you're able to drive can be used to convince potential clients of your value.

Think Globally and Consider the Benefits of Independent Consultant Jobs

There are more than 24-million small businesses in the United States alone, and many millions more around the world. As an independent consultant, your potential is limitless when you consider this number. With today's technology, you can work from the location of your choice while making a meaningful difference thousands of miles away. Currently, we have two clients in Switzerland, and we're doing work in Guam. We have clients with projects based in locations from Pittsburgh to Saipan. Modern technology makes it all possible, and it allows consultants to work seamlessly. The key is to recognize your strengths and seek out the organizations that can benefit from them, regardless of global location.

Consulting encompasses far more than what most people believe. Certainly, there are consulting jobs that involve long hours, low responsibility, bad pay and poor job security, but these represent only a small percentage of consulting jobs. As an independent consultant, you can truly create the career of your dreams, but you have to be able to envision consulting differently from what some pieces of conventional wisdom would have you believe. There are countless independent consultant jobs available throughout the world. It's up to you to go out and take them on.

Are you interested in learning more about what independent consultant jobs entail? I encourage you to download the free Ex3 consulting guides from our website. You can also download a free copy of my eBook, “Experience Matters,” which contains a great deal of information on consulting in the modern business world.