The Moral Decay: My Descent into the Dark Side

Why should you be the nice consultant holding the bag and and let others collect the reward?

I used to be a good guy, working as an IT consultant for a big company, earning a decent salary and doing my job with integrity. But that was before I stumbled upon the dark side.

As an employee, I worked hard, delivering results and driving projects forward. I was the go-to guy, the one who knew how to fix things, and the one who actually cared about getting the project done on time and within budget. But despite my best efforts, I noticed something strange – the salespeople were raking in ten times what I earned, despite their lack of skills and expertise.

'You are just like Darth Vader' my girlfriend said. But as her ex was doing time, she already knew to zip it.

These smooth-talking charlatans would promise heaven to clients, but deliver something entirely different. “Oh, yes, we can definitely build a self-aware chatbot that can sing and dance, for that laughable budget!” they’d say, without even knowing what a chatbot was. And when the project went belly-up, they’d just shrug it off, collecting their bonuses while I worked overtime to fix the mess.

The worst part was working with the other consultants who were brought in to “help” on these projects. There was Raj, the Indian guy who claimed to be a Java expert but couldn’t even write a simple “Hello World” program. He was talkative though. There was Maria, the sensitive lady who said she had 10 years of experience in project management, but couldn’t even create a basic Gantt chart. And then there was Dave, the guy who called himself an “IT Architect” but didn’t know the difference between a router and a switch.

These lesser consultants would show up on projects, collect their paychecks, and do absolutely nothing. They’d spend their days playing video games on their laptops, browsing Facebook, or taking three-hour lunches. Meanwhile, I was working 12-hour days to try and deliver something, anything, that resembled what the client had paid for.

I was fed up with being taken advantage of, so I looked at the dark side. I started to wonder why I should bother working hard, delivering results, and getting paid peanuts, while the salespeople were living large off their commissions and the lesser consultants were collecting paychecks for doing nothing. Why not join them in their game of smoke and mirrors? Why not become a Ripoff Consultant like them?

I eventually jumped ship to become an independent consultant, trying to work by the book for some time without bending the rules – until I realized how much more money I could make by playing the game. My first contract in the early 2000s was a modest €60/65 USD per hour. But as I learned the ropes and figured out how to “work the system,” I started collecting piles of money.

I began to take on projects that I knew would never deliver, but would pay me handsomely for my efforts. And when the project inevitably went south, I’d just shrug it off, collect my final paycheck, and move on to the next mark. I would take parallel projects and skimp on quality.

And that’s when El Bastardo, the Ripoff Consultant, was born. Want to know the secrets of milking unsuspecting customers and getting rich? Read on, dear friend…