As someone who has done both consulting and worked within the company…
Acting as if it is the choice of the employee or consultant as to which you will be is somewhat misleading; it is the company itself who decides if they are going to hire a consultant or a full time employee for a position. Within the market, you have to be flexible enough to be both a consultant and an employee; otherwise you end up just having a bunch of six-month gigs and in your late 40s wondering what happened.
For all the reasons that he mentions, companies should employ stable, long-term employees instead of contractors, and should always ensure that when contractors are used, they are reporting to employees to supplement their knowledge and abilities, not running the project and making the decisions that won’t come to fruit until long after they have moved onto next. The best person to design a system and implement it is the person who will be maintaining it; the trick is to get them the education that they need before the implementation so that they can make wise decisions.
A hundred thousand dollars in education for your project team before the project starts can save millions in problematic implementations and increased implementation costs.
Oh, and despite what my headhunter says, I’m not really more knowledgeable and wise when I am a contractor than when I am an employee…
