🚀 go-pugleaf

On 2018-05-20, Dan Espen <dan1...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> writes:
>
>> On 2018-05-19, hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com <hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In certain situations, there may be a need for technical
>>> skills that inhouse staff does not have; there a consultant
>>> can be useful.  Also, there are some major projects where
>>> a bunch of coders are needed just for a short time.
>>>
>>> IMHO, some firms or independents offer the best service.
>>
>> Perhaps.  But even in these cases, a consultant needs more
>> than the gift of the blarney if disasters are to be avoided.
>
> I sure don't have the gift of blarney.  That's for the salesmen.
> I relied on honesty and talent.  My employer understood fully that
> when I showed up at the client site, some of the salesman
> promises would have to be taken back. 

You were lucky.  I quit one job when I realized that my duty was to
keep the outlandish promises that salesmen made.  Typical dialogue:

Salesman: Celebration!  I landed the account!  All I had to do was
          promise them <x>, <y>, <z> ...

Techies:  You WHAT?!

The first time we ate a man-year on a project, I swore that if it
happened again I'd be gone.  Not only did it happen again, it was
the same salesman who was responsible.  (He left halfway through,
I lasted almost to the end and moonlighted the rest.)

-- 
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