Did you ever wonder why a person sitting next to you in the office chooses to work as an independent computer consultant while telling you that he/she is not getting any benefits such health insurance, paid vacation and sick leave? The answer is very simple and may surprise you. This person is doing it because he/she is making 50-100% more than you are while doing the same exact work.
At the same time this person does not have to worry about office politics, size of the annual bonus and whether or not he/she will be getting a promotion. The reason for this is rather simple; all this person really cares and worries about is this person’s hourly rate that he/she is getting for every hour that he/she is working.
In addition to making 50-100% more than a permanent employee computer consultant, depending on contractual status, gets to deduct various items as business expenses such as cell phone, home internet connection, tolls for traveling between client sites as well as gets to make bigger tax deductible contributions to 401k style plans.
Also, whenever independent consultant does not like the project he/she is working on they can, assuming contractual obligations have been met, switch to another project without worrying that a 6 months “job” will look bad on their resume.
Recently due to economic conditions many large companies decided on “hiring” independent computer consultants instead of permanent employees since independent consultants are not included in the company’s official headcount that is reported to the Wall Street during quarterly earnings calls.
Working as an independent computer consultant can be very lucrative financially as well as personally since this work arrangement allows for greater variety of projects and locations.