Consulting Office and Work Environment

[cpy911]

Hi folks,

I am looking to take a position at a consulting office. It's a small office and my compensation is based on a salary if I hit a certain amount of billable hours worked for the month. If I can get past that minimum monthly threshold, I can earn about another 30% for every additional billable hour.

One question I have is if I take vacation, I would not be able to hit the hours that month, and would effectively get a pay cut. Also, if I am sick, I miss those hours and could end up short at the month. The salary is a little less that I am making now, but the bonus could get me back to what I am at now. I am given two weeks vacation, but not sure if it is really a vacation?

How do you guys like the consulting work? Is it volatile? What if the office doesn't have work, do you get a pay cut that month? What is the upside? What do you enjoy about it?

I can see a stable paycheck from a regular company might have its virtue, but the work seems interesting.

Thanks guys!!!
cpy911

 

[Pmatherne]

One thing I would do is inquire about using remote desktop to work from home. This will let you log into a server that will work as your pc and hopefully it will be setup to let you have access to all the programs you need

Also what is your billable hour level set at? Is it 160 hours per month or lower?

 

[cpy911]

No access from home since no infrastructure to support it.
Billable hour target is 105/month. The charge out to clients is $100/hr

 

[Pmatherne]

105 hours is not really hard to hit, that is just 2 1/2 weeks roughly.
If you get paid more for extra hours I would be pushing for 10 hour days if possible.
So if you want to go on vacation during the middle of the month you will have to pull 2 weeks of 10 hour days and only take 30 minute lunches. That will give you 105 hours

 

[cvg]

You are being asked to be 65% billable. That is a very low number unless you are at the top level. Especially since that does not include vacation or sick pay. In my industry, we try to maintain an average of between 70 and 80 percent not counting vacation or sick. Department heads and above are the only ones below 70%. I have been working here for over 20 years and my current goal is 80% billable. since the number of billable hours that you are able to work may be largely out of your control, you may not ever get your full salary. This does not sound like a good arrangement to me.

 

[FSS]

You are missing the obvious question. Who gets the work? Are you being fed the work or do you have to generate it? Billable hours are a little harder to come by with the latter.

 

[Japher]

A little off topic:

That is a stupid way to pay employees. I understand that they don't want to pay them if they don't have the work, but such is life. I work for a consulting company and my bosses know that sometimes it gets slow and that there is other work to do to build the company other than billable hour work. If I was paid by the hour and based on billable hours all my projects would take forever, regardless.

 

[cpy911]

I am starting to think that this is more of an hourly job than salary. Since the company has no residual income, its all about my labor to keep me and the company afloat. If I am "down" for whatever reason, then income goes down, including mine. Companies that actually "make" something sell products and have residual income to support their employees. Since I don't have much upside with this opportunity, I might as well be an employee somewhere where my income is not tied to my billable hours.

I am concerned also that the hours might not be there as projects ebb and flow. I am not tasked with getting new business, but may have to if projects dry up. This all seems risky to me.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[rbulsara]

I am not sure what level of experience you have. IMHO, the companies who nickle and dime their employees are not worth working for. If you are worth any salt, look for a decent company that will pay a firm salary. If they do not pay overtime (for extra hours worked), I would not give them any extra time of work.