From in-house development to software consulting – six major distinctions
Are you a developer considering a switch from in-house development to software consulting? Understanding the main differences between the two can help make the transition smoother. Having done the switch myself after spending a long stint in in-house development, I thought of compiling a list of six major distinctions to keep in mind. From culture shock to adjusting to new expectations, read on to prepare yourself for the move from in-house development to software consulting.
1 Where work happens
This is one of the biggest changes when switching from in-house development to consulting. In-house developers work at their employers’ premises, whereas software consultants work as part of the clients’ team at the clients’ premises.
2 Work community
In-house developers belong to one work community – their employer’s. Software consultants, however, have two (or sometimes even more) work communities – employer’s and client’s.
Consultants work as part of clients’ teams and spend most of their time at client’s premises, hence often feel more connected to the client’s community. This might sometimes leave one with a distant feeling towards their own employer.
3 Stakeholdership
Stakeholdership often comes with accountability and emotional attachment. In in-house development, there’s more stakeholdership involved and the success of the project matters also at personal level. This also raises the threshold for leaving the company. On the contrary, there’s typically less stakeholdership in consulting. Moreover, rotations are common in consulting and the replacement can usually be found fairly easily, which lowers the threshold for leaving.
4 Career development
One significant difference between working as a software consultant and an in-house developer is that there is not the same opportunity for promotions. A consultant’s career development depends heavily on the professional profile one wants to build and pursuing projects that enable career advancement. An exception to this is long-term projects, where responsibilities often tend to grow.
5 Variability
In software consulting, projects, technologies, business domains and teams change more often than in in-house development, which brings more variability to one’s work and boosts learning. Those who like variability in their work and are able to adapt to changing situations and to take over new things fast will most likely enjoy consulting.
6 Salary
In in-house development, the salaries are typically fixed and correlate directly with the benefit that the employee generates for the company. Sadly there are also cases where the compensation does not always match with responsibility and what’s required and expected from you.
In consulting, salary can be either fixed or commission based. Commission based salary refers to a model in which part of the salary is tied to the work carried out, for example the employee’s personal monthly billing from the customer. In commission based salary models, consultant’s experience and competence, and project length, difficulty and scope affect the salary greatly.
In-house development pros and cons
Pros
- More stakeholdership involved
- Career development is more straightforward
- Communality
- Mentoring as it’s more common for in-house teams to also have juniors
Cons
- Compensation does not always match with responsibility
- Long-term work, not necessarily that much variability
Software consulting pros and cons
Pros
- More flexibility; work setting, working hours, allocation
- Compensation matches with responsibility, and is often formed based on how much you work
- One is acknowledged as an expert
- More time and energy for loved-ones
- Senior teams, more opportunities to learn from more experienced colleagues
- More variability
Cons
- Not that much stakeholdership
- Not the same opportunity for career development and promotions
- Detachment: Which work community does one belong to?
Mavericks is the go-to software consultancy for senior software professionals, providing the fairest and most transparent compensation model on the market. We make software consultants’ work life easy, simple and smooth. Four years after founding, we employ 100 – and counting! Are you the next Maverick?