The Life of a Consultant

I had lunch today with one of the smartest people I know (no, I didn’t have lunch alone!).

He’s a software architect for a large global financial services firm and has found himself with an interesting job – he’s the “go to” guy for all of their most difficult software challenges. He referred to these projects as simultaneously repulsive and fascinating. He and his small team of equally brilliant people move from project to project – usually the ones that no one else want to take on, and unsurprisingly (to me at least) they are successful at solving these seemingly impossible problems.

The thing I found most interesting, is that the things he likes about his job are exactly what our consultants like about consulting: New challenges all the time; staying up to date on cutting edge technologies; and focusing on new design as opposed to maintenance.

I know this kind of group, (architecture, special projects, internal professional services, etc) exists within many big companies. This could be an alternative for engineers and programmers that crave the challenges and variety of the consulting life. Anyone have any experiences working in this kind of a group? What do you think?