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I don't think it's "insane". If you want to make a lot of money in your early 20s, you usually need to make some sacrifices, and employers know it.

Yes.

This.

Kcab, I don't think it's a huge regional difference so much as maybe that I'm thinking of what I'm most familiar with (not being in computer science/IT or in an strict engineering field like EE or ME) and not with big-firm consulting.

Independent consulting is a different thing entirely-- and that tends to be the rule in some domains within STEM, but mostly not the case in IT or engineering (outside of specialty disciplines).

DH has done some consulting work on the side, and so have I. No way would either of us have been competent to be acting in that capacity as a newly-burnished B.S. however.

I think that it is safe to assume that recent graduates are referring to the sweatshop labor pool variety, or the expertise-rich temp-agency variety of "consulting."

I certainly hope that there aren't actually 16% of them thinking that they'd make expert independent consultants.

This is true for other industries too, particularly the STEM-related industries I've worked with and have knowledge of. It's less expensive for large corporations to hire via contract than it is to hire people as employees (pay benefits etc), and going through contract organizations gives the corporations flexibility to increase/decrease work force as needed without laying off people (which also costs $). The employees that are hired either independently or through a contracting firm are commonly referred to as "consultants" within the corporations they are hired to work for, and by themselves, on their business cards

pbear

Ohh-ohhh!!

The other cool thing about this is that you can BECOME a "consultant" with the company that used to actually, you know... EMPLOY you. With benefits and all that other stuff. Like a reasonable salary.

But due to the miracle of "consulting" work, you can be empowered to work on contract now, as a consultant. Doing the same things that you once did when working for Fortune 500 Employer. Only now being empowered to pay for your own benefits, and being compensated by the hour.

If your spouse has good benefits, especially health insurance, increasing the fraction of your compensation that is paid in cash makes sense. The labor market is a market. Employers trying to reduce their costs is not more surprising or blameworthy than consumers trying to reduce their costs.

Consultants in this field tend to be far MORE expensive than FTEs, even the independent types, though major companies are trying to coax Congress into expanding H1-B visa quotas in the hopes of changing that. Supply and demand. In my experience, consultants are brought in when there's a major skill set missing in house, and/or a major project that requires more workforce than normal. Not that there aren't shops out there who try to keep everyone on contract and outsource whenever possible... they're just not the ones I'm going to choose to work for.

As for becoming an independent consultant with your former employer... I've actually seen that work out well to the benefit of both employer and employee. The key word there is "retirement."

If "make a lot of money" is so highly ranked among your priorities that you're willing to accept the kinds of trades they're asking for (and which you've presumably already made in the achievement arms race required to get the job in the first place), then insanity has already been achieved.

If one career pays (say) five times as much as another but requires twice the hours (80 vs. 40 per week), some people, especially males, will choose the former. They can in theory retire early and enjoy more leisure in their 40s and 50s. The start-up dream is to solve your lifetime financial problem with a few "insane" years of intense work.

Oh, this is the new state-of-the-art philosophy of the Fortune 50 with their technical staff, believe me. "Why are we paying all these scientists, anyway? Didn't we get rid of R&D? Maybe we could just call them in when it seems like we want them..."

Ergo, when I say "compensated by the hour" here, what I actually mean is that a 45 hr work week on salary becomes a 50 hour contract week for no benefits and at 2/3rd (or less) the pay on an hourly basis. When you add in the loss of benefits, it's more like 40% of previous compensation.

So sure, I'm definitely seeing how this model benefits shareholders, and why analysts would swoon over it. Just sucks to be a worker bee. And yes, theoretically, workers could just "move on" to a new location, new employment opportunity, new-new-new life... but in practical terms, that is a LOT less straightforward in a tanked real estate market and when the other spouse still HAS employment locally...

I'm also left wondering (and I'm not the only one) where the heck these magical new "product innovations" are going to come from, exactly, since scientists and engineers are not being stabled in any way that fosters innovation to begin with.

As I said earlier, we are now in the twilight years of STEM.

The Golden Age of STEM is gone.

Not coming back.