In consulting, professionals face a dilemma when it comes to working as a generalist in their field or focusing as a specialist. In our previous SlideShare presentation we addressed how to transition from permanent employment to contract consulting. Today we will help guide you in your decision to work in a niche or general market. If you have any additional questions please leave them in the comment section of our blog!

1. Contracting
Generalist
Specialist
as a
or a

2. When you’re in
consulting, you’re
offering your
knowledge and
skills as a service to
organizations in
need of that specific
expertise.

3. Consultants frequently
express that their #1 fear
is not being able to find
their next contract. It’s
only natural for people
dealing with that concern
to look for ways to
acquire as many skills as
possible, in the hope of
casting a broad net over
contracts for which they
can apply.

4. In an effort to diversify their experience, they’ll take on
multiple roles in several applications, thinking that this
will expose them to more projects.

5. However, in terms of staying employed or consistently
having contracts, doing the opposite is actually a better
strategy. When a hospital is looking to engage the
services of a consultant, they want the best person
whom they can fine for the project. If a hospital is
implementing Cerner products, the organization will
not care that the consultant has done work with
Siemens or Epic. They want a Cerner specialist.

6. The above chart provides a hiring manager’s mental process, in
terms of your ability to be well rounded in each application. If
they’re looking for someone with Cerner expertise, they’re not
going to consider an individual who spent only 33.33% of their
professional experience in Cerner; they’re going to choose
someone with 100% experience within that particular
application.

7. What’s important is being the highest-skilled and most
knowledgeable person within the markets in which
you’re offering your services. Because a healthcare
organization is going to hire the best possible
consultant for their Health IT department’s projects,
you want to match that need as precisely as possible.
It may be true that if your résumé shows experience
with a Cerner project, a Siemens project, and an Epic
project, then you can apply to six different contracts
and, perhaps, hear back from many for interviews.

8. But the number of
organizations to which
you submit your résumé
means nothing. What
matters most is the
number of organizations
that are going to actually
offer you an engagement.
Having a high probability
of being offered an
engagement will lead to a
high likelihood of constant
work.

9. Would you rather interview for two projects with which
you have a 90% chance of being offered the
engagement?
Or would you rather interview for four positions with
which you have a 20% chance of being offered the
engagement?

10. The focus on how many organizations to which you
can be presented should be eliminated. What you
should focus on is how many organizations to which
you can apply where you will have a very high
probability of being the best person presented for the
position.

11. Learn More At HealthcareIS.com
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