PICA Member Spotlights

Q&A with independent consultants who successfully “made the leap” and created the consulting career of their dreams

Q: Why did you go independent?

A: I actually just kind of fell into it. I was working for HP at the time and they had very generous personnel policies, including a commitment to no layoffs, which went back decades. When the need for downsizing became unavoidable, because of the no layoff policy, they would offer people a very generous package to leave voluntarily. When I heard about a group that had been offered voluntary severance, I remember thinking, "Oh, if they ever offer that to me, I'm going to take it."

Q: So how did you actually make the leap?

A: Fast-forward several years, I had just bought my first house. The marketing group I was in was going through a very painful and extensive reorganization and needed to shed some people so they offered voluntary severance. My first thought was, "Oh no, I can't do that." And then, about a split second later, the next thought was, "Oh yes, I can." And so I did. I just left. I've forgotten exactly how much money they gave me, but I think it was like nine month's pay. I didn't really know what I was going to do for work. I assumed I would look for another job. But several months into it, someone from HP called me. They had lost their technical writer due to illness and asked me if I would do a two-week contract for them. So I did and made what I thought at the time was a lot of money. I thought, "Well, I could just do this." I was anticipating having children and I couldn't really imagine working full-time and commuting two hours a day so becoming an Instructional Design and Technical Writing Consultant seemed like the right thing to do. And I have never looked back! Consulting has been tremendously rewarding. I have worked for over 20 different companies, met a lot of fabulous people from all over the world, and was able to balance work with my family life.

Q: What's been your biggest challenge?

A: By far the biggest challenge is keeping a steady stream of work coming in. At times there's too much, and other times there’s too little. So that's been challenging. I can't say I've really mastered it even after all these years. The thing I would recommend most is networking. In analyzing where my business comes from, I realized that it comes from my core network. There are probably 10 people who have generated almost all my work. I've never gotten a job through a recruiter. I have only gotten one job from an online posting, and it was the worst job I ever had.

Q: So what's next for you and your consulting business?

A: Well, now that my kids are mostly grown and my parents have passed away, I would like to have more fun with my business. I’m eager to form new partnerships and alliances, especially with other PICA consultants. I would like to network more with change management and other HR professionals because I seem to work well with them and my jobs are typically associated with projects they're involved in. Sometimes it’s documenting processes and sometimes it’s developing training, or both!

Q: What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

A: They can contact me through the form on my website or through my profile on LinkedIn.