Reply to: Levelling up in contracting - mentoring/coaching services?

[edison]

If you have a LinkedIn account you will undoubtedly be bombarded by business coaches and mentors.

I am still waiting to find one that has surpassed my own modest achievements.

There's a big difference between coaching and mentoring. Mentors are normally people who've been there, done that and can pass on their experience and wisdom to someone less experienced.

Coaching is more about helping a person to help themselves find the answers. Anyone can call themselves a coach, it's completely unregulated.

There are two main coaching bodies that offer accreditation based on practical training. How good are they? I'm not 100% sure.

[TheDude]

If you have a LinkedIn account you will undoubtedly be bombarded by business coaches and mentors.

I am still waiting to find one that has surpassed my own modest achievements.

[NotAllThere]

(Moderator pauses long enough to put down can of special brew).

In other industries - there are often organisations, clubs, societies, or even simply put companies helping with career or business development, which do have access to a wide range of tangible useful data.

Be careful though. Check out the Lighthouse International, which has been labelled a cult.

[edison]

First off you've got to know the market you need to break in to. Are there roles out there for 700+ backend engineers? Sounds top of the range to me but I don't know that skill well. Not many 'doers' getting much more than that and then it's highly dependant on the the clients.

Pull out the roles that you are aiming for, if they exist, and look in to what they need and you don't have. That will guide your progress. I don't see how books and mentoring will make much difference. The client has a need and you have to have the skills that fill it. You must have seen roles that you want but can't get. Why can't you get them?

There is quite a bit out there to help with this sort of thing but it's mainly aimed at very experienced people, probably in the range of £800-1500 day rates and not really for roles like engineers. Contrary to what some might think, not everyone who has the skills to charge a high day rate does actually know how to go about doing it on their own for the first time (thinking mostly of ex-permies here).

I think mentoring is the sort of thing that might benefit the OP but probably over a longer period of time to achieve some of what he has in mind. I mentor several people through an organisation that has mentored a large number of people in IT, mostly techies.

OP - I'll DM you with details, all the organisation's mentors work for free so no charge to you.

[Lance]

If you are getting absolute top dollar you need to be delivering... Remember it's always the most expensive people that are shown the door first.

Personally I always tried my hardest to not be the highest costing contractor - it's not worth the extra risk..

this is very true.
Thanks to the consultancy playing silly buggers, I was the highest cost contractor (my first contract).

I didn't take the highest rate mind, but there was a target on my back. Every time the client started another cost saving exercise (every quarter) I was on the top of their PPT in the example list of expensive resources.

I was still there for over 2 years and left of my own accord after a project was completed. But suffice to say every quarter, there were multiple senior managers wanted rid of me specifically, immaterial of skills, value, project delivery etc..

[eek]

Not all of them earn top dollar or are even that good.

I have worked with a few and seen some of them walked or not renewed.

If you are getting absolute top dollar you need to be delivering... Remember it's always the most expensive people that are shown the door first.

Personally I always tried my hardest to not be the highest costing contractor - it's not worth the extra risk..

[Lance]

simple answer. become a Microsoft MVP.
It's recognised across the industry. And Microsoft will invite you to plenty of speaking opportunities.

EDIT: Oh yeah. Buy my book on how to get there....

[TheDude]

But there are many tech consultants achieving much higher rates. Some of them regularly speak at globally-followed conferences

Not all of them earn top dollar or are even that good.

I have worked with a few and seen some of them walked or not renewed.

[TheDude]

Hi all,
I'm a backend engineer, charging £600-700 outside of IR35 (well, at least I have been so far, fingers crossed about the market...).

I was wondering if you know any coaching/mentoring services (or perhaps books/courses), which could help guide me to:
(a) increase my rates further; and
(b) provide better/more consistent inbound stream of opportunities (proactively generated, not passively received from agencies)?

Thank you in advance for your help and insights!

£700pd outside IR35 approaching the top end for backend development.

To move to the next level you either need to complement your tech experience with in demand domain experience or jump on board an upcomming technology before everybody else does.

I wouldn't waste my money on training. Everything you need is available for free online.

[merseygrit]

It is indeed the top of the range. No, there are no such roles regularly advertised or sought for by agencies.

But there are many tech consultants achieving much higher rates. Some of them regularly speak at globally-followed conferences, others not, etc. I know how to reply to a contract advert and get the role - what I don't know (or rather, seek some more detailed guidance), is how to methodically grow significantly beyond. (well, with the exception that, probably, selling my soul to a FAANG for 15 years could help).


I love the friendliness and immediate suspicion :-). To those afraid of getting banned - I guess, please DM me...

So, if these guys are doing what a contractor like you does, but they can charge more, then it's because they have put a lot of effort into their brand and they are benefiting from a brand premium. If they are offering fixed price solutions, then they have a distinctive product and are selling solutions that have higher value.

I've started as a contractor for organisations, established a trust and later been asked back and been able to double my rate working directly for the client. I've also sold solutions based on the value to the client rather than a day rate. It's a lot more effort and risk. Charging high rates is often short term and/or is challenging on a technical or soft skills basis.

[courtg9000]

courtg9000, hobnob - thank you for your replies. I was about to disconnect (I tend to avoid negativity and toxicity...), but it seems like I shouldn't judge the community by just a few people :-).

I agree that jumping from help desk to backend / from CCNA to CCIE / from sysadmin to devops is fairly straightforward, and well within one standard deviation of expected results for people inside tech. Heck, I have even helped a few non-techies get into programming, and that didn't require rocket science. That's all easy.

What is less easy is trying to get more insight and data (not anecdote or strong opinions of people who, seemingly, know more about me that I do...) about the industry and its opportunities outside of the well-tread paths. Hence my question. In other industries - there are often organisations, clubs, societies, or even simply put companies helping with career or business development, which do have access to a wide range of tangible useful data.

courtg9000 - you are making a lot of good points, and I could try to leverage some of my existing networks (e.g. I am a member of a number of private members clubs, not BNI though ). However, as always, the devil lies in the detail:

• "get into thought leadership" - most "leaders" I have seen in tech are hardcore developers, who spend thousands of hours on minutiae or philosophical debates (not to discredit their importance of pushing the industry's limits in their specific areas) - I am not sure if that helps win the higher-ticket sales (most businesses don't really care about the great compiler improvements one has made...). Businesses I have worked with tend to favour people with solid business understanding and ability to deliver tangible value - I don't think I have seen e.g. consultancies conducting digital transformation which regularly speak on dev conferences (perhaps very small % of them?). But perhaps that's my sample bias.
• "Get your name up there on Google for your skill set" - do you genuinely think people use Google in this fashion? One of my previous clients once hired a DBA wizard (for good reasons) and paid them way-above-the-market fees - but I doubt he was engaged by typing "database admin guru Berlin"...

hobnob



I know very well what I want to do (I am not sure where the assumption came from that I don't...). I want to continue to leverage my existing skillset (i.e. designing/building scalable backend systems, as well as providing advice on architecture / cost savings), but move away from hourly-billing to value/project-based billing. Whether this is under my personal brand or a generically-named consultancy is a question of marketing, I guess.

I know that probably thousands (?) people have done so. I just don't know enough of them (or well-enough those that I do know of) to be able to pay for their mentorship or even loose brainstorming over afternoon coffee.



I am aware and I know. I have managed to achieve a lot in a short period of time in my previous career and then turn into backend engineering purely out of passion - I am quite used to 100h+ per week grind; that's not an issue. But there is good grind and bad grind, and I need more data to be able to clearly differentiate, especially in this case.

And I have learned a long time ago, that it doesn't make sense to be rediscovering the wheel on your own - it's always better to have guidance of those above you. (Heck, I even once paid an olympic medalist for a quick chat over coffee, which saved me probably hundreds of hours of frustrations and help cut through most of the crap I have been seeing and reading...)

The key thing with Google is that people need to see you are there and are accessible to them especially if you are trying to push above market bands.
Marketing isn't a one size fits all thing but Google is a big part of it and needs to be a big part of your personal brand if you are trying to get paid more than anyone else is. Get your basics sorted, then move on to Google.
You need to be there based on your suggested strategy and you need to make sure that there is no crap on there that can bite you on the bum. At the level of the market you want the CV is going to be a little less relevant and a lower-grade team lead or similar may not get to see the CV as you are more likely to be foisted on them from a height. But watch how quickly you get googled, linkedin checked, social media checked etc by your team and others who work for that client once they have worked out how much more than them you are being paid.
Remember its your brand, its you and your ability to generate cash. Whether you brand as a consultancy or not it will still come back to YOU. Google Gerald Ratner if you want to learn how NOT to do it!

[hobnob]

[*]"Get your name up there on Google for your skill set" - do you genuinely think people use Google in this fashion? One of my previous clients once hired a DBA wizard (for good reasons) and paid them way-above-the-market fees - but I doubt he was engaged by typing "database admin guru Berlin"...

At a previous workplace, the company decided to update their website, so they did a search for "web design". The company they chose put some small print at the bottom of each website they did: "Web design by Blahblah Ltd", with a link back to their own site, which helped their Google results. (I think it was a bit cheeky for them to advertise via client sites like that, but it worked.)

I think it can work the same way for other services, e.g. if people do a Google search for a weird error message and then find your tech blog where you've talked about it.

I know very well what I want to do (I am not sure where the assumption came from that I don't...). I want to continue to leverage my existing skillset (i.e. designing/building scalable backend systems, as well as providing advice on architecture / cost savings), but move away from hourly-billing to value/project-based billing. Whether this is under my personal brand or a generically-named consultancy is a question of marketing, I guess.

Ok, so you're moving away from T&M (Time and Materials) towards a fixed price contract. That means that you'll need to give a quotation to the client at the start; too high and you'll price yourself out of the market, but too low and you'll make a loss. There are probably resources out there which will help with this, but I can't recommend any myself. Here are a couple of previous forum threads which might be a good starting point:
Fixed price contract - Contractor UK Bulletin Board
Fixed Price Contract - How does it work? - Contractor UK Bulletin Board

As for marketing, one way is to go back to previous clients. E.g. if you helped someone to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 a few years ago, maybe you can also help them upgrade to Windows 11.

[dante0]

courtg9000, hobnob - thank you for your replies. I was about to disconnect (I tend to avoid negativity and toxicity...), but it seems like I shouldn't judge the community by just a few people :-).

I agree that jumping from help desk to backend / from CCNA to CCIE / from sysadmin to devops is fairly straightforward, and well within one standard deviation of expected results for people inside tech. Heck, I have even helped a few non-techies get into programming, and that didn't require rocket science. That's all easy.

What is less easy is trying to get more insight and data (not anecdote or strong opinions of people who, seemingly, know more about me that I do...) about the industry and its opportunities outside of the well-tread paths. Hence my question. In other industries - there are often organisations, clubs, societies, or even simply put companies helping with career or business development, which do have access to a wide range of tangible useful data.

courtg9000 - you are making a lot of good points, and I could try to leverage some of my existing networks (e.g. I am a member of a number of private members clubs, not BNI though ). However, as always, the devil lies in the detail:

• "get into thought leadership" - most "leaders" I have seen in tech are hardcore developers, who spend thousands of hours on minutiae or philosophical debates (not to discredit their importance of pushing the industry's limits in their specific areas) - I am not sure if that helps win the higher-ticket sales (most businesses don't really care about the great compiler improvements one has made...). Businesses I have worked with tend to favour people with solid business understanding and ability to deliver tangible value - I don't think I have seen e.g. consultancies conducting digital transformation which regularly speak on dev conferences (perhaps very small % of them?). But perhaps that's my sample bias.
• "Get your name up there on Google for your skill set" - do you genuinely think people use Google in this fashion? One of my previous clients once hired a DBA wizard (for good reasons) and paid them way-above-the-market fees - but I doubt he was engaged by typing "database admin guru Berlin"...

hobnob

you need to have some idea of what you want to do instead.

I know very well what I want to do (I am not sure where the assumption came from that I don't...). I want to continue to leverage my existing skillset (i.e. designing/building scalable backend systems, as well as providing advice on architecture / cost savings), but move away from hourly-billing to value/project-based billing. Whether this is under my personal brand or a generically-named consultancy is a question of marketing, I guess.

I know that probably thousands (?) people have done so. I just don't know enough of them (or well-enough those that I do know of) to be able to pay for their mentorship or even loose brainstorming over afternoon coffee.

Be aware that it's a grind, and you'll have to pump out content on a regular basis to sate The Algorithm.

I am aware and I know. I have managed to achieve a lot in a short period of time in my previous career and then turn into backend engineering purely out of passion - I am quite used to 100h+ per week grind; that's not an issue. But there is good grind and bad grind, and I need more data to be able to clearly differentiate, especially in this case. To add to what you are saying - probably posting tutorials on how to do XYZ (which junior developers will love) might not be most helpful in the positioning. What I would like to learn more about is - what will. I have plenty of ideas, but no tangible data.

And I have learned a long time ago, that it doesn't make sense to be rediscovering the wheel on your own - it's always better to have guidance of those above you. (Heck, I even once paid an olympic medalist for a quick chat over coffee, which saved me probably hundreds of hours of frustrations and help cut through most of the crap I have been seeing and reading...)

[hobnob]

I'll take the OP's comments at face value, and perhaps I can explain the negativity. Think about adverts you get on TV/radio:

Alice: "Oh no, that was my favourite shirt. I'll never get this stain out!"
Bob: "Ah, you should try new Zammo brand detergent! It's guaranteed to remove all stains."
(Time passes)
Alice: "My shirt looks great, and it's all thanks to Zammo."

In a forum context (particularly with new people), it might go like this:

Alice: "I feel like my career is at a standstill. Can anyone help?"
Bob: "It's your lucky day! I've just published a book with all the secrets you need to unlock your true potential! The first 100 buyers can get it for $99.99 with free shipping..."

So, a cynic might think that you (dante0) were laying the groundwork for an accomplice.

As for your question, it depends whether you want to get more money for what you're already doing (which sounds unlikely) or whether you want to do a different role. If it's the latter, NLUK is correct, i.e. you need to have some idea of what you want to do instead.

Putting it another way, suppose that someone works with Cisco kit. If you said "I'm a CCNA and I want to be a CCIE" then people could point you towards relevant resources. Similarly, if you work with Azure, and you said "I'm currently an administrator but I want to be an architect"; again, people could give you specific tips on that.

However, if you want generic coaching then it's going to be about self-promotion. There are people who've helped their career by acting as influencers, but there's no guarantee of success. Be aware that it's a grind, and you'll have to pump out content on a regular basis to sate The Algorithm. That's not specific to IT; I've heard of people running out of ideas if they run a YouTube channel with cookery tips or make-up tutorials.

[courtg9000]

Get into the thought leadership side to go above your rate level like that.
That means blogs, youtube, presentations, talks, case studies etc and take your marketing and personal brand seriously.
I say this quite about marketing here when these sorts of discussions come up. In my opinion only it is a good way to go.
So basics such as business cards, pens, brochures.
One of the best ones I did was to brand up my Nextcloud instance. The amount of people that said things along the lines of "that looks more professional than ours". People do seriously take notice of this stuff.
Get known and socialise and network at the right golf clubs and if you are that way inclined - masonic lodges.
Do networking events and be polished when your turn comes to speak.
Unless you want small pieces of work avoid BNI unless you get invited as a guest and for god's sake don't pay for membership!
You could go to the next level and sponsor the local tufty club and things but unless you are after direct local business its not going to really have an effect.
Get your name up there on Google for your skill set preferably without using PPC and the like.
To charge more than market banding you will probably need to be connected over an IT director/CTO's head to get in the door. At lower levels managers or team leads will very unlikely be able to sign off way above market and maybe only by a few quid.