In October 2007, I made the decision to leave my former full-time employment with the University of Ottawa for a far more risky venture, independent consulting. 

I have a good deal of experience in IT and had run my own company for almost 3 years in the past so I was not entirely new to the consulting challenges.

In November 2007, the page was turned for me to start in my new chosen lifestyle.

I decided to associate with Infront Consulting Group which helped the transition immensely.  Infront Consulting and their team of consultants are both specialized and highly skilled in the Microsoft System Center space.  Given that a large portion of my experience to date was focused on monitoring, this has been a "win-win" scenario.

Through Infront, I have had the opportunity to meet and work alongside with several MVPs.  Rory McCaw (MOM MVP), Pete Zerger (MOM MVP), and John Hann (MOM MVP).

I was also given the opportunity to deliver training for them in the form of Microsoft Official Curriculum, custom training, as well as their in-house boot camp for Advanced System Center Operations Manager training.

The team at infront has been very supportive in terms of providing mutually beneficial engagements but also in providing direction to focus skill development so as to be the most useful and responsive to market demands.

Last year also proved interesting in the sense that I discovered I really like presenting publicly.  I am not sure of an alternative way to find this out other than being subjected to it.

I was given the opportunity by Microsoft to present in front of professional audiences publicly in my hometown of Montreal and Ottawa at TechDays08.  I presented sessions in the Infrastructure and Virtualization tracks.  I got to work alongside with friends and peers such as Mitch Garvis, Daniel Neremberg, David Myers, Todd Lamothe, and Kim Frank.

For IT Pros or consultants that don't know, this is a fantastic way to generate exposure and expand on your networking with contacts. 

One slight disadvantage that consulting has brought about is that as VP, I can no longer dedicate as much time or resources to the Ottawa Windows Server User Group as I have in the past.  My colleague Garth Jones, who is president of the User Group is in a similar boat...

We still give what we can in terms of time and guidance and are thankful of the support from devoted members and administrative contributors in keeping the group going.  Surprisingly, much of the support we have received comes from members who do not live in Ottawa proper but the surrounding areas.  This is true dedication!

For myself, as far as Community contributions, I share knowledge I have gained about user group governance and running study groups with others that have interest and I maintain a blog where I disseminate and share information through posts such as this.

I will continue as well to present in different events as much as possible since I like doing it.

This year, I was presented with the MVP award for Management Infrastructure and although it was awarded in January, it was based on the past years' events so I count is as part of my first year in consulting.  Not a bad way to end the year, but it sets the bar higher...

I can only hope that the next and coming years will be as enjoyable and productive as this year has been for me!

I am happy to discuss the process of becoming a consultant with anyone that has interest in this topic.

Read the complete post at http://owsug.ca/blogs/brad/archive/2009/01/10/Transition-to-Consulting-_2D00_-Swimming-with-the-Sharks_2C00_-the-Year-in-Review.aspx