Reflections On Life As Consultant
June 3, 2008 · Print This Article
It’s been a very interesting fortnight.
At times I’ve really felt like meat in a sandwich, squashed between things threatening to be consumed. As a project consultant to a number of Australian Flexible Learning Elearning Innovations projects after this Friday and in between negotiations for a number of other private and enterprie RTO projects spread from Caringbah to Coonamble I’ve learnt that life as consultant can be both exciting and rewarding.
Travel is having it’s toll. My persistent cough is back as is my sore back from travelling in my utility for hours on end. My throat is sore from talking. ….and yet there’s a certain joy about having time with my son to play with him and watch the snow fall and still not enough time to get into the studio and create some art work.
That part is a discipline related issue and one I’m gradually getting my head around.
I’ve also learned that as a consultant you can expect;
- the unexpected
- to need a home office….it’s almost impossible to operate as an e-learning consultant without a reliable table, internet connection and some decent strong coffee
- your an outsider to insider negotiations
- not to be paid for at least two-three hours of emails per day
- the bigger the organisation the bigger the expectation to be patient especially with payments for service….it’s a short term contract….little regularity….lots of paperwork
- many phone calls or none at all dependent on who’s where and how close you are to the source of project management
- odd working hours
- constant anxiety
- strange requests from people expecting everything for nothing
- time to yourself which is generally consumed with thinking about prospects
- more time management skill development than ever before
- hefty PI and PL cover upwards of $1400 AUD per annum.
- a massive fuel bill
- increased interest from the tax office
- decreased interest from the bank
Overall it’s a very challenging time and now that I’m confident I can last out till spring I might get a chance to interview for some full-time work which I can get paid to forget the above….for a while…..till that becomes debilitating and humiliating and so on.
More meat in the sandwich me thinks. Plenty of time to reflect and create and build things which matter most.
Open wide spaces.
Alex you just described my day.
The source of income is always a constant worry, to the point of being depressing at times for me. I love the challenges and the lack of bureaucracy (my role being a little different to yours), but the idea that we live on fresh air and love and need no income is a constant source of puzzlement to me too. Ironically this attitude is usually held by those who wouldn’t dream of doing anything without a hefty pay cheque attached to it.
Oh well.
I also think you forgot to add “Do things in one day that others didn’t manage to do for several weeks even though they were paid to do it… oh and for nothing please”.
Still there are rewards. Some things would just never happen if there were not people willing to step outside the prevalent thinking in organisations and “just do it”. Its frustrating, its tough at times, but in my case at least, something like Learning Table would never come into being if I was just another employee. I’m sure you can relate to similar events.
Still there are days I would like a regular income, until I remember the reasons I choose to leave the last job like that.
Dan