[JaK_MarkoV_Pi]

Clients are generally very demanding, lots of travel, hard hours, flexibility and good communication/customer service is a must. Don't get me wrong - it wasn't horrible, and I think I did quite well at the job...I just don't have the right type of personality to enjoy the work. Dealing with people all day made me exhausted. This is probably what I hated most about the job: being "on" - as in, being approachable, never showing frustration or impatience towards clients, and always appearing to want to help. The right personality would enjoy the job. My coworkers generally seemed to love it.

On the bright side, I learned A TON while working, and I got to go to different businesses and see lots of different types of networks and setups. I've applied a lot of what I've learned from this job to my new job. If you are relatively new in the workforce, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try it. Worst case you hate it, but you learn a lot of good stuff very quickly.

Pretty much spot on, I would add that the pressure to sell more services or else you only earn a mediocre salary (for what you do) can be taxing as well if you're crap at selling things a customer may not need.

I think if you put as much effort in a internal IT position as you do as a good consultant, you can get VERY good results because you spend all that time and flexiblity for getting things done.