

Ask HN: How one finds contracting/consulting jobs at BigCo's? - zerr

Hello,<p>There are people who do contracting for big companies (NetApp, IBM, Microsoft, etc...). How to find such positions? Part-time is as well rarity among engineering jobs for such companies.
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philjr
I've never done this and If you have never done it either maybe subcontracting
for a larger consultancy firm might be a good place to start. Will get you in
the right neighbourhood so to speak and get you talking to the right people
and should be significantly easier providing you're good at what you do.

~~~
brandonlipman
Interesting answer Phil. When you say larger consultancy firms do you mean
firms similar to the size of Accenture?

~~~
philjr
Accenture is on the much larger end. I'd probably suggest if you're interested
in pursuing a career on your own that you find a smaller boutique consultancy.
You'll be closer to deals and have more insight in to how business is
generated.

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twunde
I worked at Google as a contractor. I got my position through a consulting
company (a small boutique one in this case). I got the impression that the
bigger companies used contracting companies just because it was easier to
manage. Fewer vendors to manage, bill etc.

~~~
zerr
One thing that puzzles me, those big co's have tons of engineers. One might
say that they've commoditized the software development. So how come they're
unable to solve some tasks internally? I'm not talking about some very domain
specific tasks, where it makes sense to consult/contract some
experts/academics, but there are just regular engineers working as a
contractors/consultants for them.

~~~
twunde
My department used contractors like myself to support legacy software. I think
there are a few reasons for it.

1\. I know that hiring contractors was significantly easier than hiring full-
timers. Fewer interviews, less setup time, less coordination with HR or
internal recruiters. 2\. The other contractors used were supporting legacy
software. 1-6 months onsite of full-time work and then limited remote support
afterward.

3\. If you're paying top dollar and working for you has a large amount of
prestige then you want to make sure that your engineers are working on the
hard problems. Anything that's not related to that can and should be given to
contractors.

To make sure this isn't abused, I think Google only keeps contractors on for 1
year with only a few exceptions

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dsacco
1\. Get well acquainted with managers and executives at as many vendors,
firms, Fortune 500s and consultancies as possible.

2\. Demonstrate usefulness and a value proposition.

3\. Discreetly ask for work.

To be even more concise: be an outgoing, valuable individual who is not afraid
to ask for work.

