The time has come for a blog about the consulting business.  And a book.  But more importantly, a conversation.  Because there are millions of us, and this very topic affects our lives – the lives of the knowledge workers who write our software every single day.

My name is Aaron Erickson.  I am a Principal with ThoughtWorks, home to many like minded folks who believe, like I do, that the purpose of a company should be beyond mere commercial success, but should include a higher purpose – including social justice. I have two big passions. One is software, which I write a lot about at my corporate blog.  But another, and frankly, much larger one, is the technology services business itself – which is a chief agent affecting the software that companies large and small use every single day.

Frankly, to most who enter this business – the technology services business – the way that it works is a mystery.  You hear terms like bench time, utilization, backlog, and so forth – and you might know what they mean.  But there is also a lot of misinformation out there – and some of the more dysfunctional companies out there like it that way, because it is a good way of keeping employees in fear, under control, oblivious, and sometimes, all three at once.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  If you know the lingua franca of this business, you can quickly know things like:

• How secure is my job?
• How can I get promoted?
• Is the company growing enough for me to get a promotion?
• Is right now a good time to ask for a raise?
• What happens if I am on the bench?
• How will I know if this project is going to be a death march?

This blog, and my book – “The Nomadic Developer”, available on Amazon and bookstores near you, seek to answer these questions.  Stay tuned – it is going to be a fun ride!