New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Transitioning to consulting

Ask HN: Transitioning to consulting
3 by krisppy | 2 comments on Hacker News.
Dear HN, As a long time lurker I've come to seek the collective wisdom of this august assembly. I've been a FTE for the entirety of my so far 6 year career, but am looking to switch over to consulting. I'm targeting B2B, fully remote engagements. My skillset is varied with strong C++ and Python, as applied to backend engineering, as well as having done research work in ML/AI and quant spaces. Based on informal chats with my network I'm able to get assignments quite easily, but not necessarily within my areas of specialization. I'm trying to figure out how to strategize around this transition and am looking for some advice. Here are my main questions: Are there any recommended resources (Books/blogs/courses/etc.) I should look into? Do I focus on work closely related to my specialty or take a broad spectrum approach? I have no strong personal preference here. Should I prefer depth (fewer, more hours) assignments or breadth (multiple, fewer hours, perhaps get a wider perspective)? What are some ways I can look for clients I can provide the greatest value to, other than engaging my network, especially for the specialist work? How do I price the work? Do I charge by time/sub-project tasks/whole projects? How would I determine the rates to charge? If I have about two months until I can start working on this business, what are the most impactful preparations I can make? I expect a lot of these questions are best answered by an "it depends", so my goal is to build the mental framework to attack them, and would appreciate any help.

Comments