How has the economy affected consultants and freelancers?

Question

I was wondering if people across the country are seeing similarly steep drops in consulting business as we have seen in Los Angeles over the summer. Maybe I shouldn't have watched the CNN reports on the DOW dropping almost 1000 points in two days. How is your pipeline looking? Do you have big customers putting projects on hold?

Answer 1

I think this a pretty relevant question, I am little worried myself, maybe I should pick up a real trade, like factory work or something.

Answer 2

I think the classic professions, like Doctor, Lawyer, or Engineer, seem to weather economic conditions fairly well.

Answer 3

Too bad this question didnt take off and garner more serious answers. It was meant very sincerely. Unfortunate.

Answer 4

Well, first i guess I will comment on this topic and then I will comment on my position.

Why did this not get more attention? Well, i think a couple reasons. Some people here may not feel its programkming related. But I think more so its the fact that a lot of people that browse this site dont see the affect on them.

Are they affected, possibly. Why they dont, well, i htink its their position. A lot of mainstream developers, low to mid range, dont even see this aspect on their jobs. For example, they may not be privy to decisions and reasons for these decisions that execs are making. Because they dont see it they are blind to it, and they cant really comment on it.

I for one do see this with one of the markets i deal with more so than any other. One of the markets is graphic tradeshops, the shops that design artwork, or get artwork ready for the press.

This industry has been going down for quite some time though, not just from the recent economic troubles. Just like how develoment positions have been sent out of north america to other countries, so have the prepress jobs. So a lot of tradeshops have been losing business because of that for years. Another aspect is that more and more converters (printing press operators) are getting the platemaking equipemnt in their own plants. This removes anoither need of the traditional tradeshop.

But in my opinion this is their own faults. How many tradeshops are keeping up with the times and being creative with their service offerings not many. So they lose business and fold.

I think this goes with many other industries as well. Its difficult to keep costs low and compete with out of country work and they fold.

Am I personally worried, NO! (Well, maybe a bit, i always worry about losing business) See i have for years been trying to help businesses tap international potential by bringing aspects of their business online so they can deal with the world market, not just their local market.

There ya go, a serious answer to a serious question.

Answer 5

Anything remotely related to real estate is going to take a bath. I started moving myself out of companies in those industries around 2005. I am now in an industry that has nothing to do with real estate. My employer is having one of their best years as far as revenue and subscriptions. I'm staying put, until things improve again.

Consulting has always been a feast or famine situation. I haven't taken any contracts since around 2005 as well. Contracting rates have gone down quite a bit for run of the mill business stuff. The only things that I see getting good money in Information Services are Security, Data Warehousing, and Search (indexing and optimization).

Answer 6

Some of us that visit the site aren't in the U.S. but can still feel the effects of the crisis there. There are likely some big drops around where I live in Calgary, Alberta but that would be due to the drop in oil prices recently that will impact the Oil & Gas market that accounts for 83% of technology workers in this area, while I have yet to work for anything in that sector.

Some of our big projects where I work have been put on hold and others are getting changed around regularly it seems so there is some chaos that I'm working through but I think even in good times there is still this chaos of what new software needs to be written, what needs to be tweaked and what needs to be fixed.

Answer 7

I can tell you that even government consulting is feeling the pinch.

Answer 8

I am on the client side of things, and we have restructured our budgets for a long down turn. That said, the technology that can help me save money will still get a very serious review. When I can save time and can re-use code or solutions I will invest in that solution.

Personally I think this is the best time for those who can innovate. When you don't have the luxury of budget you tend to trim the fat and get to the essentials.