How to Excel as an IT Consultant

Do you want to excel as an IT consultant? You’ve come to the right place

Throughout my professional life, many people asked me what they could do to be better as an IT consultant and how to do their work better. This is where I focused until it became normal on my day to day:

1 – Be comfortable in being uncomfortable

You will find many situations while being a consultant on which you are not ready or never seen before. Relax, breathe, and structure your thoughts on how to solve the puzzle piece by piece, you’ll get there.

2 – Realize that studying didn’t stop when you finished school

Being a consultant requires a constant catch up with new trends and technologies and also how they fit with the industry in general. Not all will make sense for your fancy new project, you will need to try them, think about them and understand the benefits. If you fail to realize this, you will be very limited as a consultant.

3 – Communicate clearly, all the time

If you are not ready to present or discuss something, then don’t. Always make sure you have your thoughts structured and ready to be explained to someone. Don’t assume people know what you do, you will be making a constant effort of going into a conversation armed to talk with people with very different skills and backgrounds.

4 – Don’t assume, always verify first

The worst thing you can do is to make a good plan and an excellent presentation based on wrong assumptions, you lose credibility very fast as well as time and energy. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions.

5 – Learn to say “no” effectively

Managing time and deliveries is a constant battle in any consultant’s life and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with multiple parallel streams of work. You can only do one effectively at a time, sequence your work, prioritize it and when something clearly doesn’t fit, explain why you can’t do it right now or what would need to change so you can.

6 – Don’t be afraid to fail

Failing to do something is more common than our culture has made us believe, we fail all the time and we need to understand this is normal. Learn to fail fast, if you are going to fail, fail as early as possible and correct it right away. Never let something you know it’s going to fail drag to the point where there is no way back, its your responsibility to do so.

Surely this list could be much bigger, and there are many other points that could help you become a better consultant, but I promise if you focus on these 6 you are ready to tackle all the others.

At Crossjoin we have an Academy where new Crossers can learn all this and much more.

André Simões
Product Line Manager

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