Ask HN: Examples of high-value specialised consulting?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33013329

by daralthus • 4 years ago

46 25 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Are you doing consulting at $250k+ a year? What is your niche? How did you find it?

I do cybersecurity consulting. Specifically, Web Application Security which I charge $350/hr for and make about $300k/yr from this.

I am usually brought in when a competitor gets hacked and the company gets scared or as part of a high quality penetration test.

My experience is mixed between cyber security and fullstack development. This led to me having a very deep knowledge of how to properly consult companies regarding potential vulnerabilities.

moralestapia• 4 years ago

Do you automate your pentesting? If not, let's talk.

bubblehack3r4• 4 years ago

Almost no automation, I use automation when it helps the manual process like searching for open ports or discovering directories and files.

lifeofpi331144• 4 years ago

Is this your primary, or is this additional to what you make

bubblehack3r4• 4 years ago

This is in addition to other consultancy projects, but does make up about 60% of my yearly income.

dc-programmer• 4 years ago

How does one market themself as a high end pentester? Are companies looking for a certain pedigree?

bubblehack3r4• 4 years ago

Most clients are word to mouth, some I meet at conferences and meetups.

labarilem• 4 years ago

How did you learn this skill set besides practicing? Any books/courses you'd recommend?

jmconfuzeus• 4 years ago

Search for zwink university on youtube.

angarg12• 4 years ago

I have 10+ YoE, and I'm currently working in ML at Big Tech. I regularly get contacted by recruiters offering 100+ $/hr contracts unsolicited. I'm pretty sure those are bottom of the barrel rates and I would be able to get much better rates if I was actively looking.

250k a year in the current market doesn't sound like a lot.

metadat• 4 years ago

$250k is a lot of cash, but doesn't go far in Cali these days. Primarily because we are getting taxed to the max, 51%, without the tax breaks like babyboomers of y'ore.

Even in Texas, taxes are still pretty extreme considering how we don't get that much more from the Government compared to 20 or even 40 years ago. The average American life looks the same or worse over time, if you adjust for efficiency gains due to technological advances.

mynegation• 4 years ago

High-performance distributed systems for capital markets. Basically started in capital markets and sought out to work on the most business-critical applications, acquiring skills along the way.

adenta• 4 years ago

After selling my YC W20 startup, I carved out a niche of building MVP’s for other startups.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to differentiate myself from race-to-the-bottom dev shops, but I’ve been making it work.

I have a ton of relevant experience around helping companies launch products 2-3 months ahead of schedule, which is really important when starting something new. Often times you only have a vague idea what your customers want, so you need to move quickly & validate what they need.

jlbbellefeuille• 4 years ago

Legal Marketing for Plaintiff Law Firms.

nickphx• 4 years ago

I've done some consulting for similar firms.. Developed SMS and email systems for them..

yuppie_scum• 4 years ago

COBOL

rs999gti2• 4 years ago

SAP consulting

hackarama• 4 years ago

Seconding this. I've seen on-shore US consultants easily charge $240 an hour on a time and material basis, and those are run-of-the-mill consultants.

rs999gti2• 4 years ago

I know two people that semi-retired in their 50s just being independent SAP consultants that specialized in one of their many modules

AtlasBarfed• 4 years ago

Pick a complicated software package, database, etc.

There you go.

snake_doc• 4 years ago

High-value general consulting pays $250k+ cash to 2yr+ consultants.

High performing 1st year associates can get $250k all-in.

McKinsey, Bain and BCG lift pay as talent war heats up https://on.ft.com/3CJyH6W

“The firms, which do not publicly disclose their pay scales, will increase annual base salaries for MBA graduates in the US from $175,000 to between $190,000 and $192,000, according to people familiar with the matter.

Top performers will be in line to receive more than $250,000 in their first year when performance-related and signing bonuses are included.”

121789• 4 years ago

I get the intuition that this type of consulting is not quite the type OP was referring to

andrewmcwatters• 4 years ago

I don't think you need a niche for consulting at $250,000+ a year. Even with aggressive industry pricing, you'll gross that on the principal owner alone. My firm charges fair rates, and that's just typical business.[1]

[1] https://www.andrewmcwatters.com

hiyer• 4 years ago

I have a friend who does ML-Ops consultancy - basically help startups set up domain-specific ML pipelines and such in the cloud. He doesn't make over 250k+, given that this is in India; but he makes more than enough to get by.

ilikerashers• 4 years ago

Government cloud Technical Architecture and just grew organically to 2-3 people. You get more $ from sticking around and waiting for opportunities.

It can be a slow grind though.

Ask HN: Examples of high-value specialised consulting?

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