Making the decision to become an IT consultant is often difficult. Going from a salary position with full-time benefits — where you know what you will be making on a monthly basis — to a consultant is a major change. Consultants must operate as though they are a business. In addition to delivering on your technical skills in a professional manner, this means marketing your services, selling your services, billing for your services, and managing your accounts.

It’s a lot of work. But it can also be quite lucrative when done right. But perhaps the biggest benefit of being a consultant is the freedom to choose the types of assignments you want. You can elect to focus on small-business technology solutions, enterprise solutions, or somewhere in between. You can also choose to take on a mix of solutions –in terms of company size, location and types of technologies involved. This freedom can lead to greater career advancement since you don’t limit yourself to the opportunities that might come from a single employer.

A career as a consultant also gives you choices about the way you want to work and how you want to balance work with your personal life. Do you want to work from home? Do you want to say in one area? Or would you like to travel across the United States or even the world? All types of situations can be found to suit your preferences.

Perhaps the biggest key to succeeding, particularly early in your IT consulting career, is to partner with an outsourcing firm that takes care of all the back-office business components for you — someone to market and sell your services as well as take care of billing and account management. This lets you focus on what you do best and enjoy most — delivering technical services in your specialty areas. It also lets you spend more of your time on billable, revenue-generating activities.

Many consultants have found the type of partner they need with SmartSource, a technical resource company that since 1996 has provided a wide range of IT staffing solutions to companies across the United States. The company sets itself apart from other outsourcing firms by partnering exclusively with original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, hardware VARS, computer service organizations, and independent IT companies.

The involvement of a solution provider in IT solutions is a philosophy championed by many in the IT sector. Solution providers offer a balance of expertise and flexibility that often does not exist when manufacturers and end-user companies try to deploy solutions on their own. By partnering with solution providers, SmartSource is able to bring more qualified opportunities to IT consultants while also providing a strong support network. Consultants don’t end-up working on their own at client sites. They can often tap into resources offered by SmartSource or the solution provider.

Here’s a sampling of what several IT consultants, who have been with SmartSource for varying amounts of time and have fulfilled various assignments, have to say about working as consultants for SmartSource:

Mike Buechs is a Network Engineer/Consultant who has been with SmartSource for 10 years and has been in the IT business for 25 years. He transitioned from a corporate position when he first came to work for SmartSource and provides all types of IT support on switches, routers, LANs, and desktops.

“SmartSource has a great bunch of people to work with,” Buechs said. “They offer jobs that span the country so I can travel or stay local. I particularly like their personal touch. I interact with same person all the time. But most importantly, they keep me busy. I have not experienced long periods of downtime.” Buechs said that what he likes most about being a consultant is that he has a choice of whether he wants to accept a particular project. “On the corporate side, you have take on what you are given whether you like it or not,” he added.

Vincent Isidoro, a field engineer who has been with SmartSource for about one year, has been a consultant for about two years after being on the corporate side for several years. “SmartSource looks ahead to see when my projects will end, and they make sure there’s another one for me so that I don’t have much downtime,” Isidoro said.

Isidoro travels across U.S. every week to take the lead role in upgrading/updating LANs for a healthcare provider. He replaces servers, upgrades desktops, and provides basic support - spending one week at a time at each site. “I like to travel, and SmartSource has been good at finding traveling opportunities for me,” he said. “They keep me busy - there has been very little lag time between projects, and I get my choice of projects.” SmartSource has also indicated a willingness to help Isidoro land a full-time position with one of SmartSource’s customers. “If I find one I like, SmartSource will try to get me hired permanently. They have been very open to me making a career change.”

Matt Adkins has been with SmartSource for about three years as a Network/Systems Administrator. SmartSource has found a variety of assignments for him from one-person projects (router replacements, network surveys, POS projects) to high-end projects involving a team of consultants. He has done everything from wiring to systems administration.

“I don’t have to worry about invoicing, late payments, and contracts – SmartSource takes care of all of that for me,” Adkins said. “They collect the info and provide support so I can focus on the technical work.” Adkins also likes how SmartSource finds projects for him with nationally-known companies. “They also have assigned just one person to manage my schedule,” Adkins said. “She knows my skills and finds work that suits my strengths. With other outsourcing firms, I’ve found that you never know who is going to call you, and when they do, it’s usually something they need tomorrow. SmartSource on the other hand provides all the documentation I need to do the project. If anything is missing, they will find it so I can arrive prepared.”

Jennifer Smith faces a difficult challenge as a consultant in that she lives in a remote area of northwestern Pennsylvania. “I’ve been with SmartSource for about two years, and they have managed to keep me busy about half the time, which is quite good given where I live. Other outsourcing agencies tend to just give up once they hear where I live.”

Smith has mostly handled POS rollouts, system repairs and imaging assignments. “If there’s a logistics problem that prevents me from working, such as equipment not arriving on time, I still get paid the minimum time,” Smith said. “This shows how much SmartSource appreciates my time. They are also good in resolving statement-of-work issues when a client asks me to do something outside of the original scope. Most employees do not realize I am a hardware technician and not part of their internal software technical support team. If a problem arises when I inform them to call their help desk, Smart Source helps resolve the issue.”

Alex Larkin has been with SmartSource a little more than two years and a consultant for 10 years. As a Senior Enterprise Consultant, he designs solutions for SMBs and usually works on five projects per year that run two to three months long.

“SmartSource consistently provides quality projects that are technically challenging and that come with clear contract guidelines,” Larkin said. “The staff is easy to work with and they keep coming up with new assignments. I like to travel, and SmartSource has been good at finding assignments that let me travel all over the east coast.” Larkin appreciates the opportunity that SmartSource gives him to work on small networks as well as enterprise world-class networks. “I’m not limited to just one type of network so I’m able to test new technology,” Larkin said. “This helps to advance my career.”

Making any career change is never easy. But as you can see from the comments above, a career as an IT consultant can be rewarding. IT consulting can also offer perks simply not available through a corporate position — especially with the help of SmartSource.