copyright & licensing

all content © VM (Vicky) Brasseur and licensed under CC BY-SA

Originally posted on 07 Feb 2024

1 minute read

Johanna’s a professional acquaintance. I’m also grateful and fortunate that she’s one of the tech reviewers for my latest book. I’ve read her stuff in the past and regularly recommend Hiring Geeks That Fit to people who are trying to improve their hiring processes.

When Johanna announced the release of this book last year, I quickly bought it to support and continue learning from her. It’s only just come up in the (admittedly haphazard) reading queue. While I’m not actively looking to return to consulting, the craptacular job market has me admitting that I may need to anyway. So if nothing else, the book will help get me in a good state of mind for thinking that through.

It succeeded in that, inspiring me to start up a kanban board to direct my work and thinking on the subject of starting up my consulting again. Because I had done this work before, there wasn’t a lot of new information in here for me, but it was still valuable to me to get a focused refresher. That, plus everything I’ve learned in the years since I last consulted, may help the process be less stressful this time (should I actually follow through on the idea, which is likely…alas).

If you’ve not consulted before, you certainly should read up on how to do so before starting, and Johanna’s book should be on that list. She walks you through a lot of topics you might not otherwise consider if left to your own devices. One thing she frequently stresses is the importance of content marketing to the success of your consulting practice. This is something I’ve seen most consultants neglect, so they struggle to get client leads.

The flow of the book wasn’t a great fit for me, but I suspect that may be a personal thing rather than a fault in the book. Overall, it was a timely and valuable read for me, despite that.