Table of Contents

About the Author     xiii

About the Annotators     xv

Acknowledgments     xix

Foreword     xxi

Preface     xxv

 

Chapter 1: Why Consulting?     1

Chapter 2: The Seven Deadly Firms     27

Chapter 3: How Technology Consulting Firms Work     59

Chapter 4: Getting In: Ten Unstated Traits That Technology Consulting Firms Look For     97

Chapter 5: What You Need to Ask Before You Join a Technology Consulting Firm     125

Chapter 6: Surviving     157

Chapter 7: Thriving     181

Chapter 8: Your Career Path     207

Chapter 9: Avoiding Career-Limiting Moves     231

Chapter 10: Is Consulting Right for You?     259

Chapter 11: An Anthology of Sage Advice     273

Appendix A: Consultopia: The Ideal Consulting Firm     311

Appendix B: A Consulting Lexicon     325

 

Index     343

 

About the Author

Aaron Erickson is a veteran technology consultant, writer, and technical evangelist with Magenic Technologies, based out of Chicago. He has spent the majority of his career catering to the individual needs of companies of all sizes. His strategic consulting focus has been centered around delivering high-value solutions that break new technological ground and bringing added value to both up-and-coming clients, as well as those who are already established.

 

For the past 16 years, Aaron has worked with leading-edge companies, providing prescriptive guidance to both the knowledge workers–those who actually produce the software–as well as the management side of the business, including CEOs, CTOs, and other executive staff. His experience has led him to do business with a variety of clients across financial services, supply chain, and insurance, vertical industries. His consulting mantra in recent years has been technology matters, but business results matter more.

 

Aaron is frequently invited to speak at events such as TechEd, VSLive, and .NET user groups on topics ranging from the highly technical (F#, C#, LINQ, and Functional Programming), to more business-focused topics that open the floor to an exchange of ideas, best practices, and observations about the specialized world of technology consulting.

 

Aaron has been a Microsoft MVP since 2007. He has written for .NET Developers Journal and InformIT. He blogs at both nomadic-developer.com as well as for Magenic at blog.magenic.com/blogs/aarone. Readers can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/AaronErickson.