I was contacted by a tech placement firm for a six months job doing SAP work, which I have a ton of experience in. I used to be in an internal consulting sort of role for this stuff at a very large US multinational. This would be the first time for me as an “indepedent” consultant. The money should be good, all expenses paid, and it will give me a good stepping stone for more of this.
Anyway, my question: I was asked if I would prefer to be W2 or 1099. I told the person I spoke with (not the client company, the placement company) that I didn’t really know but I would check.
So can anyone tell me what the pros and cons of each would be. I was told I’d need a million dollar liability policy for the 1099. I already have a couple of C corps set up that I could put one of these on, so 1099 seems feasible, although the W2 route might be simpler.
Longtime management consultant here - specializing in healthcare strategy, fwiw. I was an Associate Partner at Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) then did independent work for a year and a half before joining a small healthcare company in a different capacity.
There are a TON of smaller healthcare related consulting firms out there. The Advisory Board Company, the Lewin Group, the Tiber Group, the Impart Group, just to name a few. They run the gamut from basically 1-2 person shops to 75+ professionals with active campus recruiting efforts and a full pyramid of consulting roles.
If you are serious about consulting, you need to do some research about healthcare consulting firms in specific and consulting firms in general. While much of what the other posters state about consulting is true - management consulting is its own beast. “Consulting” can apply to almost any position where a company brings you or your company in to help them with their business in some capacity. Management Consulting takes this to a whole 'nother level - in terms of the type of work they do, the methodological way they do it and the culture of the management consulting firm. Top firms like Accenture, McKinsey, Booz Allen, BCG, IBM’s Consulting Group (big healthcare presence, btw) all have distinct cultures and ways of doing business.
Do research, read up on business school-related recruiting - a lot of consulting firms recruit MBA’s or other graduate degrees. It can be a lot of fun - especially if you are relatively young and looking to learn at an accelerated pace. It is like extended grad school - a residency, if you will, where you do case studies for projects. But there are plenty of downsides - as mentioned by the other folks.
Good luck.