So You Think You Want to Be a Consultant?

-Catherine B. Tencza, Tencza Designs

Let’s say there are two police officers. One is a homicide detective. She loves analyzing evidence, and views every case as a challenging puzzle to solve. She likes the variety—each case is different. She also is glad that each case has a definite beginning and end; she gets bored when things drag on. The other officer is big on community safety. He spends hours in neighborhood watch groups and local schools. He plans bike safety rallies and other community events. He loves the continuity and feeling of being a vital part of the community; everybody seems to know his name and he theirs.

Here are two officers, both with similar training and titles, but with radically different jobs. To me, this is similar to the difference between an IS consultant and an employee. This difference occurred to me as I read excerpts from some student surveys completed in Trends and Issues. Many alumni identified “industry knowledge” as important to success in the business world. I thought of my work in transportation, insurance, medicine, public education, prisons, hospitality, etc., and thought, “Which industry?” until I realized that unlike me, most alumni focus on a particular industry.

My husband, Brian Tencza, is an ID, too. We met at FSU. Except for a five-year stint working with me, he has been a full-time employee for the past 20 years. At the end of those five consulting years, he said, “I’m just tired of always having to learn new content, build new relationships, and deal with new politics; it’s hard to have to prove yourself anew with each project.” So for the past ten years, he has worked in health and human services, currently with the CDC. He likes the fact that he is comfortable with the subject matter, knows all the people and how to get things done, and can steadily build his knowledge of—and influence in—public health. He also likes that he has a lot of different technologies with which to work and plenty of other professionals to support him.

As for me, I have been consulting for 20 years. As a working mother, my whole family likes the fact that I have the flexibility to be active in the kids’ school lives. The thought of going to work in the same job every day depresses me beyond words. I love that I have a choice in what projects I undertake. I approach each chance to learn something totally new with gusto. I appreciate not having to worry about dreary (to me) implementation details. I guess I’m the prototypical generalist, playing in a lot of different sandboxes but never getting dirty enough to build a giant sand castle.

So which is the right path? To be sure, neither is without its pitfalls. Brian sometimes gets frustrated by organizational politics, and there are people with whom he’d rather not work, but he has no choice. I sometimes wish that I was with a large organization that had a lot of “toys” to play with, and certainly there is a chronic low-level stress associated with the lack of security that contracting brings. Also, many are attracted to the benefits of consulting but fail, because one must have strong consulting, leadership, and communication skills; credibility; and the ability to pick things up very quickly. Ultimately, I think it means taking a close look at your own strengths and preferences.

Choose contracting if you:

Can quickly analyze new situations and content
Are an outgoing, take-charge person
Enjoy selling yourself
Do not experience anxiety in novel situations or with new people
Really enjoy learning new subject matter
Don’t mind always being the outsider

Choose full-time employment if you:

Enjoy being a part of a sustained, larger effort
Want to focus on a particular industry
Prefer to take the time to have a thorough understanding of the work at hand
Enjoy having a routine
Need health insurance, retirement, and other benefits an employer can offer
Need business and leadership experience before going on your own

Cathy Tencza (MS, 1984) has been a consultant with Tencza Designs for 20 years. She works with organizations to determine what job performers should be able to do, whether they are able to perform to standard, and how their abilities can be improved when necessary. Then, she works closely with the client to assemble and manage a team of instructional designers, subject matter experts, managers and others to design and develop training and other interventions that efficiently help the employees perform to standard. She has worked on projects both large and small, ranging from, “Can you give me a couple of days to help me put together a presentation?” to “We need a team of about eight to ten designers to complete a multi-year project involving a complete front-end analysis and multi-mode training.” On this long and winding road, she has designed instruction for nearly every media and across many industries.

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About Admissions -PhD -Masters -Certificate Programs -Financial Programs -PhD -Masters -Certificate -Course List Faculty/Staff Directory Research -Projects -Facilities Student Resources Alumni	Back to Alumni So You Think You Want to Be a Consultant? -Catherine B. Tencza, Tencza Designs Let’s say there are two police officers. One is a homicide detective. She loves analyzing evidence, and views every case as a challenging puzzle to solve. She likes the variety—each case is different. She also is glad that each case has a definite beginning and end; she gets bored when things drag on. The other officer is big on community safety. He spends hours in neighborhood watch groups and local schools. He plans bike safety rallies and other community events. He loves the continuity and feeling of being a vital part of the community; everybody seems to know his name and he theirs. Here are two officers, both with similar training and titles, but with radically different jobs. To me, this is similar to the difference between an IS consultant and an employee. This difference occurred to me as I read excerpts from some student surveys completed in Trends and Issues. Many alumni identified “industry knowledge” as important to success in the business world. I thought of my work in transportation, insurance, medicine, public education, prisons, hospitality, etc., and thought, “Which industry?” until I realized that unlike me, most alumni focus on a particular industry. My husband, Brian Tencza, is an ID, too. We met at FSU. Except for a five-year stint working with me, he has been a full-time employee for the past 20 years. At the end of those five consulting years, he said, “I’m just tired of always having to learn new content, build new relationships, and deal with new politics; it’s hard to have to prove yourself anew with each project.” So for the past ten years, he has worked in health and human services, currently with the CDC. He likes the fact that he is comfortable with the subject matter, knows all the people and how to get things done, and can steadily build his knowledge of—and influence in—public health. He also likes that he has a lot of different technologies with which to work and plenty of other professionals to support him. As for me, I have been consulting for 20 years. As a working mother, my whole family likes the fact that I have the flexibility to be active in the kids’ school lives. The thought of going to work in the same job every day depresses me beyond words. I love that I have a choice in what projects I undertake. I approach each chance to learn something totally new with gusto. I appreciate not having to worry about dreary (to me) implementation details. I guess I’m the prototypical generalist, playing in a lot of different sandboxes but never getting dirty enough to build a giant sand castle. So which is the right path? To be sure, neither is without its pitfalls. Brian sometimes gets frustrated by organizational politics, and there are people with whom he’d rather not work, but he has no choice. I sometimes wish that I was with a large organization that had a lot of “toys” to play with, and certainly there is a chronic low-level stress associated with the lack of security that contracting brings. Also, many are attracted to the benefits of consulting but fail, because one must have strong consulting, leadership, and communication skills; credibility; and the ability to pick things up very quickly. Ultimately, I think it means taking a close look at your own strengths and preferences. Choose contracting if you: Can quickly analyze new situations and content Are an outgoing, take-charge person Enjoy selling yourself Do not experience anxiety in novel situations or with new people Really enjoy learning new subject matter Don’t mind always being the outsider Choose full-time employment if you: Enjoy being a part of a sustained, larger effort Want to focus on a particular industry Prefer to take the time to have a thorough understanding of the work at hand Enjoy having a routine Need health insurance, retirement, and other benefits an employer can offer Need business and leadership experience before going on your own Cathy Tencza (MS, 1984) has been a consultant with Tencza Designs for 20 years. She works with organizations to determine what job performers should be able to do, whether they are able to perform to standard, and how their abilities can be improved when necessary. Then, she works closely with the client to assemble and manage a team of instructional designers, subject matter experts, managers and others to design and develop training and other interventions that efficiently help the employees perform to standard. She has worked on projects both large and small, ranging from, “Can you give me a couple of days to help me put together a presentation?” to “We need a team of about eight to ten designers to complete a multi-year project involving a complete front-end analysis and multi-mode training.” On this long and winding road, she has designed instruction for nearly every media and across many industries.	News/Events IS Newsletter