"Am I a Consultant or a Contractor?"

The titles that IT contractors and staffing firms use to describe
themselves often mean different things to different people.

Excerpts by permission from David Mineo and Contract Professional Magazine.

Thursday I wasn't feeling well, so I called my doctor. (Or did I call my physician?) The diagnosis was hideously incorrect, so I contacted my lawyer. (Or was it my attorney?) By Friday, however, I was feeling better so I took a call from my recruiter...or was it my agent...or my headhunter?

You get my drift? In today's fast-paced world - and particularly in the world of IT contracting - terminology can change as fast as the projects and companies you work for. And while some people have no trouble with terminology, others get rather irked at being called a headhunter rather than a recruiter, or a contractor instead of a consultant, or an agency instead of a staffing firm.

Such inconsistency has created confusion in the IT contracting world, so that even 20-year veterans don't necessarily agree.

In an attempt to bring order to this semantic chaos, I conducted an unscientific survey of sorts, speaking to dozens of people within the industry to get their take on a few important terms. Some of the definitions might surprise you. What probably won't surprise you is that an industry changing as rapidly as ours is also changing its terminology to adapt to the ever-shifting landscape of contact employment.
Selected responses from: "Describe a Contractor"...
• Contractors only crank out code.
• Contractors are a hired skill set, an extra set of hands.
• Contractors supply a skill a company currently has.
• W-2 contractors do not have a contractor mindset - it's just another job, a way of being not a permanent employee but as close as possible.

Selected responses from: "Describe a Consultant"...
• Consultants are responsible for the outcome of a project.
• Consultants are W-2 hourly, working through staffing firms.
• Consultants give advice and provide solutions, but do not write code.
• Consultants provide a needed skill set a company doesn't presently have.
• Consultant is interchangeable with contractor.

As you can see, the overlap is significant. Holding definitions can be overwhelming, and I was only focusing on a handful of terms. One respondent simplified the entire process by saying, "Everyone working today is a contract consultant. Some people just don't know it yet."

Such simplicity is attractive, for at the end of the day I learned something: Contractors, consultants, brokers, and staffing firms all work in a process-driven business where communication and relationship-building skills are essential.

How Webster completed that first dictionary is beyond me. But then again the world didn't move as fast back then. I know this, I'll have a bit more respect now when I reach for the dictionary ... or should I say lexicon?

David Mineo is CP's director of strategic relations.
For more articles and the complete text of this one, go to cpuniverse.com