PRESIDENT’S INVITED COLUMN
For this month’s column, I asked Richard Goldstein (aka Rich) to describe the life of a statistical consultant. What about consulting interested
him? What issues has he faced? What is his daily life like? There are many statisticians who consult on a part-time basis while holding a position
in academia. Rich and others depend on consulting for their livelihoods.
~ Tony Lachenbruch, ASA President
Hanging Out a Shingle:
Am I Lonely Working on My Own?
null
Don’t you worry about where the next
No, definitely not. There are no office politics, and I can
go for a walk or do anything else—including take a nap—
project is coming from? What do you
virtually any time I want. How could I be lonely? Remember
Jean-Paul Sartre: “Hell is other people.” Further, I sometimes
do all day?
null
work with a statistician who is also a good friend, and I attend
events run by the Boston Chapter of the ASA.
Do Clients Ever Try To Not Pay?
In the first few years of consulting, this did happen a couple of
I
have been a self-employed consulting statistician since 1979. I times; however, it has not happened in years. Further, I try to
love it (though there was a time when my wife did not). For discourage late payments by charging a late payment fee and
years, I jumped from job to job, looking for work that was both telling clients up front this will happen. When a client objects
fulfilling and interesting—and never staying in a job for more than to paying a late payment fee, there are two consequences: I
18 months. Some of the places I worked had no idea how to use me; increase my hourly rate and tell them if they are late paying me,
others did, but those ideas did not match mine. For example, when I will stop work on their project.
one company found what I could do the fastest, I was given that task
to do—over and over. So, I struck out on my own.
From Where Is the Next Project Coming?
People thinking about becoming self-employed usually ask me There is more than one answer to this. First, I don’t know and
the following five questions: How do you find work? Aren’t you don’t really care too much (although I like the ability to turn
lonely? Do clients try and screw you? Don’t you worry about where down requests for work). I have been doing this long enough to
the next project is coming from? What do you do all day? know it is coming, even if I don’t know from whom or exact-
ly when. Second, I have several regular clients by now. They
How Do I Find Work?
are not enough to allow me to live the way I want; however,
By now, work finds me. But this was not true when I started. At they are enough to pay most of the bills most of the time. This
that time, I found work in two ways: I networked and tried to get means that, yes, I sometimes have a slow month. However,
my name known in new places and, when I was interested in a par- those are covered by months that are busier than I would like.
ticular area (e.g., employment discrimination court cases), I went to If you need to know a certain amount of money is coming in
the source and found names of people to write. Specifically, I went each month and you want to be a consultant, join a consult-
to the local U.S. District Court, looked up current employment ing firm. Your life will be very different from mine, especially
discrimination cases, and contacted the attorneys assigned to those if someone else gets to choose which projects to accept and
cases. Several hired me. what your role will be.
2 AMSTAT NEWS JUNE 2008
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76