Are you smarter than your high paid consultant?

Monday, September 8, 2008 by Myke.

Do you work in the IT field?  I do.  Are you a “Jack of all trades”?  I am.  Do you have a great counterpart working with you?  I do.  Could the two of you take over a small country with your incredible ability to intimidate and b.s.?  We could.  Between you and your co-worker, do you have the IT intelligence of an entire team of engineers and then some?  We do.  If you are like our IT group, we have a vast knowledge of just about everything and are always looking for ways to implement the newest technology.  We have a mix of male, female and something or other.  We have the jokers and the HR friendly at all times folks.  We have a great boss with an even greater personality.  Bottom line, we get the job done.

I am sure there are numerous others out there like us and I am sure you are just as proud as we are and just as confused as well.  Why is it that when you have the talent pool of IT Gods/Goddesses would your company go out and hire a group of “high priced” consultants?  That hits us all in the mouth at some point and time.  Do we take insult to this?  Sometimes.  Do we get mad?  Sometimes.  Then after some time and some serious money goes flying out the door, what happens?  Things sometimes do not go as planned and the powers to be look for the reason.  Then the finger pointing and gestures begin.  The consultants blame the internal team or infrastructure and the internal team just sits there in disbelief.  We sit there thinking to ourselves…wait a minute, did we just get blamed for something we have no part of?  Did they just call us out as retards?  Did they just treat us like newbs?  It happens folks…and I am here today to show you how to fight back against the onslaught of BS!

So you want to know what helps prevent you getting bombed by management and the consultant team?  One word folks, documentation.  Document everything in your department before, during and after the consultants are there.  The one thing a consultant cannot defend himself/herself againest is good documentation.  Always stand tall with your department and be there for your team from start to finish.  Never shy away from questions, just point them in the direction of your documentation.

Consultants are not a bad thing and they are not the enemy for the most part.  But they can cause a huge stir if they come in and find a rats nest in your department and you have zero documentation.Word to the wise for consultants, never try and bury a person that can help you out of a jam.  Especially if he/she finds out you ****ed up and can prove it.  We are proud.  We are strong.  We have many flash drives of naughty photos of you in the server room dancing to “Goodbye Horses”.

Reason for this story - Left Brain and Right Brain were attacked by a group of consultants and the consultants lost.  They not only lost but are now forking out the big bucks to get it fixed.  Do not mess with the Brain folks…we are evil in ways that has never been seen on the big screen. 

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