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IT Consultant

Mary Weilage

Mary Weilage

TechRepublic Staff

Mary Weilage

Mary Weilage
Mary Weilage is a Senior Editor for the CBS Interactive site TechRepublic. She edits the Android App Builder, Asian Technology, IT Consultant, SMB Technologist, Social Media in the Enterprise, and Software Engineer blogs.
  • 1

    Five tips for subcontracting out work

    So you find that you have too much work to do, or maybe you're lacking in expertise on some facet of your project, and you need to subcontract part of it out. What steps do you need to take?...

    Posted by Chip Camden | December 21, 2007, 2:57 PM PST

  • 171

    What are your top five programming languages?

    Here's a little exercise I'd like all of you who do any programming to try. First, list your top five programming languages, in terms of your expertise (how well you know the language, not...

    Posted by Chip Camden | December 14, 2007, 12:33 PM PST | Latest comment by drednot57

  • 29

    Should you charge more when you don't know what you're doing?

    In the discussion following last week's post Seven reasons to turn down business, TechRepublic member burntfinger1 said: If I don't have a particular skill set and the client wants me to "do...

    Posted by Chip Camden | December 6, 2007, 3:35 PM PST | Latest comment by rcosby

  • 4

    How consultants are like Santa's elves

    I know that I take myself and my profession far too seriously. After all, managing projects for other people is how I pay for the roof over my family's head and the food they eat. However,...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | December 2, 2007, 6:29 PM PST | Latest comment by RoseJM1884

  • 19

    Seven reasons to turn down business

    When I first started consulting independently, I was a software prostitute: any opening, name your position, I'd do any job that came my way if the price was right. Now that I'm older and...

    Posted by Chip Camden | November 28, 2007, 1:10 PM PST | Latest comment by ferencMantfeld

  • 14

    Three things I wish someone had told me when I started consulting

    Years ago I had a choice of what career path to take. I chose to be a consultant, working long hours for modest pay in a field which at the time seemed pretty stable. The roller-coaster ride...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | November 25, 2007, 6:39 PM PST | Latest comment by buyer@...

  • 0

    Three tricks for dealing with the holidays as a consulting project manager

    Travel costs have skyrocketed. No one is available to finish off those last ugly bits of work before the budgets run out. Everyone seems to want to hang out with their families, generally in...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | November 18, 2007, 8:03 AM PST

  • 52

    What is your IT specialty?

    Even though the name of this blog is "IT Consultant," I never call myself by that title. As TechRepublic member sheila said, everybody needs a specialization -- and "IT" is way too broad a term...

    Posted by Chip Camden | November 16, 2007, 10:10 AM PST | Latest comment by IT.Consultant

  • 40

    Some thoughts on passing as an extrovert

    A lot of professional project management consultants choose to pass rather than reveal their true colors. We choose to pretend to welcome people to our cubes, to speak up during the unending roll...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | November 11, 2007, 5:12 AM PST | Latest comment by ibd@...

  • 12

    How to find new business

    No matter how good your relationship with your clients, eventually one or more of them will become inactive. It's a fact of business, and it may or may not have anything to do with your quality...

    Posted by Chip Camden | November 9, 2007, 5:55 PM PST | Latest comment by Maineword

  • 24

    How to manage invoicing and receivables as an independent consultant

    Once you're in business for yourself, the third question you have to ask (after you've successfully answered "Where do I find any business?" and "How do I get it all done?") is "How do I bill...

    Posted by Chip Camden | November 2, 2007, 4:17 PM PDT | Latest comment by pochmans@...

  • 2

    Three ways project managers give in to threats

    We live in a corporate environment (and indeed a social one) where the fear of personal, financial, or political harm counts for more than the honest calculation of risk. Economists are slowly...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | October 28, 2007, 7:14 AM PDT | Latest comment by imhorwood@...

  • 21

    Handling office politics from the outside

    One of the reasons I became an independent consultant was to get away from the various interpersonal conflicts that recur in an office setting. Simply by putting my stakes down off the org...

    Posted by Chip Camden | October 23, 2007, 4:31 PM PDT | Latest comment by Sterling "chip" Camden

  • 0

    Some advice on taking advice

    Many project management blogs, including this one, talk a lot about what to do in a specific set of circumstances. We share “tricks of the trade�, ranging from organizational tips to silly...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | October 21, 2007, 5:11 PM PDT

  • 3

    Tips for growing your consultancy with government contracts

    There's no doubt that there are downsides to working with the government. But if your small or medium business is awarded a government contract, it can help your business grow exponentially.The...

    Posted by Toni Bowers | October 18, 2007, 5:44 AM PDT | Latest comment by frank@...

  • 6

    How to juggle time between multiple clients

    If you're an independent consultant, the amount of work you get from different clients may vary widely over time. You might go through long intervals in which you only work for one client,...

    Posted by Chip Camden | October 16, 2007, 11:08 AM PDT | Latest comment by Bizzo

  • 0

    Three practical tools for clarifying where you want things in new locations

    As a consultant, part of what I do involves perceptions and manipulations. A larger part of what I do is drudgery, involving constant sorting and resorting of information. The smallest part, the...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | October 13, 2007, 4:34 AM PDT

  • 32

    Four things you should know about your technical staff

    As a manager of technical projects teams, I have come to make some generalizations about IT people to help you gain a better understanding of the people in your group. IT pros... ...tend to be...

    Posted by Tom Mochal | October 9, 2007, 7:19 AM PDT | Latest comment by tripsma

  • 8

    19 things to worry about when traveling on business

    Most of this week I'll be visiting a client of mine out of town. I don't expect to have much free time there, even in the evenings -- so I thought I'd better get my weekly post here done early....

    Posted by Chip Camden | October 7, 2007, 2:47 PM PDT | Latest comment by jmgarvin

  • 1

    Four reasons people like failing projects

    I am personally from the “kill projects early and often� school of program management. I like to see project ideas come up, go though preliminary investigation, then die a deserved death...

    Posted by Shannon Kalvar | October 6, 2007, 6:25 AM PDT | Latest comment by apotheon