Lubricant

I never liked the title "IT consultant."

The technical depth was thin. They wrote no code. They solved no frontline problems. In enterprise circles you see it constantly — someone a few months out of training, billed at absurd rates per head. I couldn't tell what was being sold.

Then I spent time as a PM, and the picture shifted.

It's a question of blending hard and soft skills. A senior engineer at 9:1 technical-to-interpersonal. A junior consultant at 1:9. When a project catches fire, the latter sometimes wins. A technically correct observation, delivered wrong, moves nobody. But someone shallow on tech who can circulate among stakeholders and build consensus — that person, somehow, keeps things advancing.

Once I understood this in my gut, the distaste for consultants disappeared. The role of lubricant. Not turning the gears. Reducing friction between them. That work genuinely exists.

Most can't do it, though.