Consulting as a career option?

This is a really interesting topic and one that I have actively considered at a few different points in my career. I think the trigger points for me were:

*like Suzy, having been made redundant;
*working in an organisation which used HR consultants and coaches and seeing the day rates my organisation was prepared to pay, versus the salaried equivalent I received for often very similar work^
*having to leave a (non HR) role due to burn out;
*knowing a fair few peers who left organisations to set out on their own.

^Of course, I did factor in that I was not comparing exact like for like, but in some cases, there were magnitudes of difference in compensation.

I dipped my toe in the water a couple of years ago when between roles and concluded that I didn't want to take either of the two most common routes into more challenging work on OD projects and/or coaching (my specialisms) as I saw them. These were either supporting small businesses with predominantly ER and compliance work or delivering training on management topics as a way into becoming a trusted supplier. As I don't particularly like delivering training or ER work, it seemed to me to be a poor choice to have to invest considerable time and energy on this to build a client base to be able to move onto the more interesting work. **DISCLAIMER As I may change my mind and decide to pursue these options in future, I am perfectly competent at both, they are just not my favourite things to do :) **

I also tested out whether working as a contractor was a viable model for me and my family - the short conclusions of this experiment was, sort of, but I had become used to and valued the employed model in terms of ability and expectation to take up holiday as well are predictably of earnings. I also missed feeling part of a team when I was working on a longer term contract, I hadn't realised how much I got support and a sense of belonging from that. Although many people may mock me, I also missed being a manager/leader/decision maker and the importance of this aspect of work to me.

I think the main skillset which prevents HR people from moving into consultancy work is a lack of business development and sales skills. This was definitely a factor for me. I am well aware of the very crowded market locally for consultants and coaches and what different rates people charge. I'm a pretty good coach I think, but then so are several other 1000s of people out there who have put the time and effort into building individual and organisational relationships. I had some disappointing experiences trying to join organisations as an associate coach/consultant including one experience with the NHS where I wasted a fair bit of time pursuing an opportunity that never was finalised. That was a valuable learning point for me, the amount of active leads needed to have any chance of a decent conversion rate.I also think that although the new coaching platforms are doing well at exposing more people to coaching, the rates given are very low compared to what individual independent coaches can earn.

Then there is money. I couldn't financially take the hit to drop from a salary into the uncertainty of contract/consultancy or at least not for long enough that it would likely have taken to grow the business to the scale I wanted.

But as I said, never say never! There are definitely aspects of my skillset and personality which align well with consultancy and who knows when I will revisit this again.

Thank you for raising this topic, it's been interesting to reflect on my journey and I hope that some of what I shared is useful to others.

This is a really interesting topic and one that I have actively considered at a few different points in my career. I think the trigger points for me were:

*like Suzy, having been made redundant;
*working in an organisation which used HR consultants and coaches and seeing the day rates my organisation was prepared to pay, versus the salaried equivalent I received for often very similar work^
*having to leave a (non HR) role due to burn out;
*knowing a fair few peers who left organisations to set out on their own.

^Of course, I did factor in that I was not comparing exact like for like, but in some cases, there were magnitudes of difference in compensation.

I dipped my toe in the water a couple of years ago when between roles and concluded that I didn't want to take either of the two most common routes into more challenging work on OD projects and/or coaching (my specialisms) as I saw them. These were either supporting small businesses with predominantly ER and compliance work or delivering training on management topics as a way into becoming a trusted supplier. As I don't particularly like delivering training or ER work, it seemed to me to be a poor choice to have to invest considerable time and energy on this to build a client base to be able to move onto the more interesting work. **DISCLAIMER As I may change my mind and decide to pursue these options in future, I am perfectly competent at both, they are just not my favourite things to do :) **

I also tested out whether working as a contractor was a viable model for me and my family - the short conclusions of this experiment was, sort of, but I had become used to and valued the employed model in terms of ability and expectation to take up holiday as well are predictably of earnings. I also missed feeling part of a team when I was working on a longer term contract, I hadn't realised how much I got support and a sense of belonging from that. Although many people may mock me, I also missed being a manager/leader/decision maker and the importance of this aspect of work to me.

I think the main skillset which prevents HR people from moving into consultancy work is a lack of business development and sales skills. This was definitely a factor for me. I am well aware of the very crowded market locally for consultants and coaches and what different rates people charge. I'm a pretty good coach I think, but then so are several other 1000s of people out there who have put the time and effort into building individual and organisational relationships. I had some disappointing experiences trying to join organisations as an associate coach/consultant including one experience with the NHS where I wasted a fair bit of time pursuing an opportunity that never was finalised. That was a valuable learning point for me, the amount of active leads needed to have any chance of a decent conversion rate.I also think that although the new coaching platforms are doing well at exposing more people to coaching, the rates given are very low compared to what individual independent coaches can earn.

Then there is money. I couldn't financially take the hit to drop from a salary into the uncertainty of contract/consultancy or at least not for long enough that it would likely have taken to grow the business to the scale I wanted.

But as I said, never say never! There are definitely aspects of my skillset and personality which align well with consultancy and who knows when I will revisit this again.

Thank you for raising this topic, it's been interesting to reflect on my journey and I hope that some of what I shared is useful to others.