PFE vs. Consultant

Well, it's almost the end of June and none of my draft posts are close enough to finishing to meet my self-imposed standard of at least one post per month. So, here's a pathetic little human-interest post.

Microsoft has a Services group which provides a variety of support personnel to customers. Customers pay for this support, and as we're rather expensive, it's usually only large organizations that hire us. We're expensive because we're generally the leading experts in Microsoft technologies that are available for on-site assistance. Microsoft, like any of our competitors, has to pay competitive salaries in order to get the most qualified people to perform the work. Add a profit on top of the salaries, and that's why the per hour price may be higher than most other consulting companies supporting our products.

By the way, there are many less expensive support alternatives, including free. Such as this blog. Some huge company contracts with Microsoft Services and gets some of my time. Sometimes when I've encountered the same question more than once, I'll write a blog post here about the issue and what to do about it. Then everyone in the world can get my expertise for free. (Okay, everyone in the world with Internet access, but I'm guessing there aren't too many organizations using SQL Server that don't have Internet access.)

So, on to the topic in the title of this post. Microsoft Services is divided into Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and Microsoft Premier Services (Premier) .  What's the difference? Here's the best summary I've heard (sorry I can't remember who came up with it):

MCS consultants design and build things;
Premier Field Engineers (PFEs) help fix things if they break and when they aren't busy fixing broken things, they advise about how to prevent them from breaking in the first place.

That's it, short & sweet. Now for another tangent...

I've worked for a bunch of different consulting companies, and Microsoft is the best I've ever worked for, by every measure I can think of. Here's a very important example: Every consulting company I ever worked for verbally stressed, repeatedly, how important it was for their consultants to maintain their skills. Sometimes they put it in writing. But what they didn't do was actually support consultants spending time or money to study, experiment, or earn certifications. Will they pay for a week of training? Sorry, we can't spare you away from the customer contract you're on. How about if you take vacation time, will they at least cover the cost of a training program? Sorry, that's not in the budget right now. Microsoft, on the other hand, is extremely supportive, in both time and money. Microsoft consultants and PFEs both spend a lot of time studying to maintain and improve our knowledge and skills, and it's my perception that PFEs get to spend more time studying and experimenting than our consultants. As a PFE, I'm required to get at least 4 weeks per year of training. That's right, 4 weeks, minimum. That can be accounted for by formal training, such as workshops, semi-formal training, such as TechReady or technical industry conventions within our specialities, or informal training, such as reading or experimenting on a home computer lab. Those who know me well know I love learning... is it any wonder I love being a PFE?

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 02, 2015
  It's nice that Microsoft makes this distinction. But I can tell you from experience, clients consider PFE's consultants.