Respect is another extremely pleasant aspect of consulting. When someone hires you to do a job, at two times the pay of an employee or more, that person has decided that you are a very qualified person. And the people up the chain of command who had to sign your contract and purchase order, agree that you are worth the extra money and can get the job done. Hopefully, they are right. Whether they are or not, they tend to treat you better than they would an employee. At least until you screw up, which you do your best to insure won't happen. They tend to ask for your advice. They make suggestions—sometimes strong suggestions—rather than demands. They treat you with deference, knowing that, in theory, you could pick up and leave tomorrow if you're not happy.

This is not to say that there aren't people who will question you or your expertise. Some people will try to trip you up. And of course, you have the responsibility of dealing with people in a non-confrontational way. Sometimes you need to give them bad news about a project, or try to convince them that a route they're taking might not be the best one. All of this needs to be done carefully and with tact, because you want to have a reputation as someone who works within the constraints and is pleasant to work with. That way you get more contracts. But in general, the problems of personalities and politics are much less for consultants than employees.