Years ago, I was a Systems Engineer. One of the things that drove me to eventually becoming an entrepreneur and setting up an IT consultancy is that there are way too many IT professionals out there, who, despite being in IT for many years, have no clue what's going on. By IT professionals, I mean software developers / architects, and solution consultants.
For example, a person from an IT firm came to the company I was working for, to migrate a website, and it's associated database. For 3 days, they charged a hefty sum, but guess what? The person who migrated the web site screwed up, the web site wasn't migrated properly. I did the clean up.
So I added Migrating a Cold Fusion-based website to my skill set.
And what manager or director out there can distinguish whether an IT professional is skillful or not? In my experience, virtually none. There is an exception or two though. One's an IDA technologies enabler director. The other's a GreenDot associate director.
An IT consulting firm recently heard of my skills and exploits. They've some projects on hand which they couldn't handle, but still desire to take up. So, after a meeting, I became their “Solutions Consultant”, on a name basis. If we visit their customers, I give out their name card (which they printed for me), which says I'm their employee (which I'm not). Otherwise, if I'm visiting my customers, I give out my name card, which includes my professional certifications, CCNA, MCSE, SCSA, SCJP.
To date, I've designed and developed the following proposals for their customers.
Needless to say, my IT consultancy will be given quite a boost if I get the computer baseline automation project. The computer baseline automation project consists of me setting up a server for them, which is able to rebuild PCs, and laptops merely by the virtue of the PC or laptop plugging in to the school's network, and booting up from a diskette (or CD). Then, through the network, instructions will be given to reinstall the entire computer's operating system.