

Developer vs. Consultant - hellojohn

A colleague at work posted a rather controversial post we&#x27;ve been discussing.<p>-----------------------------------<p><pre><code>  Doing billable work
  Developer: doesn&#x27;t care, happy to churn away at some code, billable or not
  Consultant: uneasy if not doing billable work, keen to get billable work
  
  Asked to work with awkward or outdated technology
  Developer: moans that the client should move to a better technology
  Consultant: understands the values it gives the client and does it
  
  Asked to do something beyond their skill or knowledge
  Developer: not possible, not doable
  Consultant: can be done, but give me more time to find out how
  
  Asked to do a variety of tasks
  Developer: not very keen, only wants to write code
  Consultant: happy to: code, design, test, support, do meetings, team lead, manage customers, etc...
  
  Big picture
  Developer: only cares about own code
  Consultant: cares about the big picture and the strategic competitive advantage it gives the client
  
  Complex problem
  Developer: code first
  Consultant: think&#x2F;design first
  
  New technology
  Developer: jaw drops, wow, awesome, I want to use it now
  Consultant: what are the advantages&#x2F;disadvantages?, is it stable enough? does it deliver value?, let me assess it first
  
  Who is number One?
  Developer: code
  Consultant: client﻿
</code></pre>
-----------------------------------<p>What&#x27;s the consensus on these thoughts?
======
Horusiath
Actually this is not Developer vs. Consultant, but rather Coder vs. Developer
comparison. Consultant (which could also be a Developer) has nothing to do
here.

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mattlutze
It defines a rant-fueled dichotomy, whose boundaries are obviously incorrect.

------
bowlofpetunias
s/Developer/Immature codemonkey/ s/Consultant/Mature developer/

There, fixed.

(You can also replace the whole developer and coding bit with any other
profession. Plumber will do.)

~~~
jmspring
I think your substitution makes sense.

At first I was thinking Developer/Engineer difference, but that wasn't
correct.

