Starfish People - Your Consulting Connection

Be a consultant, they say. Enjoy freedom. Be your own boss. Be the expert. Charge big bucks for a few hours’ or a few days’ work, then hang out. Right — in your dreams.

Setting yourself up as a consultant is certainly a timely topic these days–financial disasters and all–but I think I owe it to you to add some realism to the concept. While traveling this weekend (down to San Francisco for a couple of days), I picked up The New York Times and saw “Risk Yes, Structure No” in the careers section, written by Eilene Zimmerman. It’s about consulting. More specifically, it’s about the move from consulting as a job with a paycheck and a boss to consulting on your own.

Q. You’ve always worked for others but now feel ready to strike out on your own as an independent consultant. Are you cut out for it?

A. Compared with corporate workers who take direction from a boss and receive regular paychecks, consultants lead lives with much less structure and much more risk. You need to know whether you can handle a new level of uncertainty and self-direction.

Job seekers sometimes feel that hiring managers wouldn’t know a good candidate if they saw one, and they might be right, according to new research on talent acquisition strategies released by Aberdeen Group.

In the new benchmark report, Talent Acquisition Strategies: Employer Branding and Quality of Hire Take Center Stage, Aberdeen reveals that not only are organizations struggling to find desired talent in the workforce, but they are also unsure of how to measure quality once a new worker comes on board.

Company exclusive job board helps growing number of unemployed find a place to network for either a permanent or interim position. Most candidates can't afford the luxury of taking time off so consulting or contract employment may fill a gap or lead to a fulltime position. The site also helps companies lessen the cost of recruitment with reasonable subscription and posting rates without competing for candidates with 3rd parties.

Samantha Fitzgerald, a Fort Lauderdale tax attorney and mother of two, wants to make the right networking connections. But 2 ½-hour business lunches consume too much of her day, and evening programs cut into family time.

Fitzgerald says she has become selective in choosing groups. ``I give an organization a certain amount of time and if doesn't work, I move on.''

With job cuts expected to continue, more workers are ramping up their networking efforts, trying to build relationships in these bleak times. Of course, widening circles isn't easy when our free time already is limited. But the financial climate requires us to shake off our unease and schmooze effectively.

There's a great scene from "The Brady Bunch" when Marcia - just turned high school freshman - is nervous about fitting in and making friends so she signs up for every club listed on the school bulletin board. This is sort of what I see happening with many of you and all the social networking sites out there.

Working past the traditional retirement age can give you essential extra income, provide something productive to do, and offer opportunities to interact with peers. Unsurprisingly, 85 percent of baby boomers plan to work in retirement, primarily for financial reasons, according to a McKinsey & Co.