Who should attend: Technical staff in consulting organizations, or future consultants.

What you will learn: A general discussion of issues related to consulting.

Whether or not you plan to make your living as your own boss, it is worth understanding the role and skills of "brainpower by the hour" in today's industry. This tutorial offers advice on the skills needed to effectively find your niche and succeed in today's market. Topics include:

- Basics

• The role of a consultant
• The consultant's relationship to the customer (management consulting, technical consulting, and corporate psychoanalysis)
• Finding work and keeping yourself afloat

• Reaching agreement on tasking and level of effort
• Managing customer expectations

• Presentation skills
• Managing politics
• Effective communications

• Writing the report
• Management presentations

• Things you need before you start
• Contracts, insurance, lawyers, and other disasters
• Corporate shields
• Setting fees and billing

Marcus J. Ranum is CEO of Network Flight Recorder, Inc. He is the principal author of several major Internet firewall products, including the DEC SEAL, the TIS Gauntlet, and the TIS Internet Firewall Toolkit. Marcus has been managing UNIX systems and network security for over 13 years, including configuring and managing whitehouse.gov. He is a co-author of the Web Security Sourcebook.

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