Summa

A year ago I began my consulting career with Summa as an Associate Technical Consultant. It was a dramatic adjustment from my previous job as a Software Engineer at a large corporation. After talking with a lot of my coworkers I found that the majority had the same thoughts that I did when I made the switch. The thoughts of uncertainty in what to expect from a new job, piled on top of a completely new way of doing things.

So I have been consulting for a year now, a short time in comparison to an entire career. Even so, I feel as if within this short period of time I can create a “what to expect” list. I hope that you can get some insight from my experience so that if you choose to make the same transition you know what to expect. Enjoy!

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As a newbie to the field of IT consulting, I am constantly observing my more seasoned colleagues. In my observation, a characteristic common among “good IT consultants” is that they are technology savvy. They are IT geeks and have a thirst to learn new technologies. They desire to be a part of the next big IT movement and spend their spare time - evenings, weekends, holidays acquainting themselves with new technologies, and creating mini projects to work on and learn.

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Instead of giving the obligatory dictionary definition, I’ll just say it like this: a consultant is someone with some wisdom (hopefully), that is asked for advice and guidance. More specifically, companies employ IT consultants to help them solve their business problems with technology. Some consultants are specialists; they have a narrow field of expertise, and are brought in to work with one specific technology. Other consultants (Summa consultants, for example) tend to be generalists; they’ve worked on many different problems at many different companies, using varying technologies as needs dictate.

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