Some people have argued on HN that the consultants are cya and political support for things the management class allready know they want. That seem about right.
Flanges up well after "Ready. Fire. Aim!"
That is the most valuable job in virtually every profitable industries including tech.
I know that I have only so much brain power to spend a day. I can work longer, but at best you're going to get more grind, not quality.
I keep wondering if these consultants could accomplish as much in fewer hours if they weren't so intent on being the one who puts in so many hours.
I know almost nothing about what they do so I'm just guessing. But I find it hard to square so much effort with results that don't seem to merit it.
It is easier to work longer hours when a hotel takes care of everything for you, but if you’re bragging about how little sleep you get you’re just teetering on the edge of burnout and American Psycho neuroticism.
What they really mean by 100 hours per week or whatever is that they respond to emails or chat on slack at all hours.
And while that's "working" in a way, it doesn't mean doing deep focused work for anything close to that number of hours. It just means they're on call, or else that work is their social life and they spend their free time chatting/hanging out with coworkers.
You can see this on social media with people who claim to work 100 hours and yet they clearly spend hours per day on twitter/instagram, go to the gym every day, go to parties, go on dates, travel, etc. The numbers obviously don't add up. I'd bet a lot of these people actually work less than the typical 9 to 5 engineer. It's more about being part of a sub-culture than anything else.
People who have actually worked crazy hours doing focused work like engineering for periods of time know that it's not sustainable long term. Your body and mind start failing you in various ways. Creativity and problem solving take a nose dive. You can do it for awhile but it becomes counter-productive before long.
They described it as up or out where you really have to grind long hours and the career is in sales and management not as a consultant really.
The sales and management part only really comes in after you’ve passed the team manager level which is fairly advanced.
That is an interesting comment. I think you are right. Probably more of a baseline competency but extraordinary 'soft skills'?
I meant team manager as included in 'sales'. Where I've worked as consultant (warm body, not a real consultant) team managers were essentially sales people.
And luck, tbh. It’s not too different from a typical org except career velocity is fairly fast and does not depend on vacancies opening up above you.