I keep hearing from patients that they are a consultant in an engineering field. Usually software. They are all usually young think late 20’s/early 30’s.
So what engineering fields lend themselves to being an consultant and why do companies hire them?
Are there any fields that you can become a consultant right from school?
My son is ending his sophomore year at Michigan in IOE (Industrial) and just curious about this in general.
The fields are most likely Information Science or Information Technology.
There are consulting jobs available for graduates of most engineering fields.
Consultant for CS or IT is just a nice way of saying “contractor” most of the time. Usually they work for or go through a consulting or contracting company that finds them positions at clients. It is easier to get into if you have a little work experience. A person that gets along well with people, adapts well to change, and is smart & resourceful is going to do better in the field.
I take OP’s question to mean consulting positions similar to a management consultant. There’re consulting firms specializing in high-level technology consulting, not acting as recipients of outsourcing of technology jobs by their clients.
I’ve been a “management consultant”, too. Worked for one of the big name firms for many years. They are glorified contractors, no matter what they call themselves.
Thanks for the comments. @intparent, @1njparent, I am speaking of both types of consulting or any other I am not thinking about. I just hear this term used so loosely. I have read some things about students going into consulting vs having years of experience in a subset and being hired as a consultant in a field for example to improve a companies processes.
Both of those things are possible. The second kind obviously makes more money. There are many variations, though. Some people work for larger corporations in some kind of consulting - those corporations can field larger teams for larger jobs, or place people more in a one-off situation where a company only needs a person or two with specific skills. Some people have their own consulting companies (often they form an LLC or an S-corp), and consult directly with clients that they find themselves, or subcontract through the bigger companies (or a combination of these, depending on the current market and available work). Some people consult as 1099s (so not a W-2 employee of a consulting company, but also don’t have their own corporation - usually no benefits for them, either, which can be a downside if they aren’t on someone else’s insurance). Some clients use consultants for years on projects, others for shorter assignments or temporary fill ins.
Some consultants have very deep expertise in one area, others are closer to generalists with decent skills in multiple areas, but not one extra deep “go to” area of expertise. The go-to expert can be more in demand, command a higher rate, but possibly might travel more to jobs that want EXACTLY what they do – and the risk is that the expertise falls out of favor somehow, like the technology becomes obsolete or is usurped by something. It behooves anyone in this type of field to continue building new skills and keeping abreast of industry changes.
@intparent thx do much. That was a great detailed response and helps my understanding… I just hear people saying they are going to be consultants coming out of college and I wonder where they are getting the expertise without building that up through years of working.
Amongst the types of big consulting firms that an engineering student might work for after college are:
The last category is where I started. It is great if you have the qualifications to be hired by McKinsey but are more interested in delving deeply into technology. Often you would be expected to have a PhD from a top school as well. However, strategy consulting pays better and allows you to go and run companies afterwards.
Note that there are also many civil engineering consulting firms (sometimes thought of mainly as architects) like Arup.
Could “consultant” be a vague way of saying “between jobs, doing some small gigs on the side” ?
@Knowsstuff I have been trying to figure that out since the 90s. I was working at an Ivy and I would meet students who would say that they wanted to be hired as consultants when they graduated. I could never figure out what they meant. When I worked in nonprofit we utilized a ton of consultants but they were all seasoned late-career experts.
I’ve been a “consultant” of one type or another for 32 years. I don’t consider it a “between jobs” step. :).
Most of those students who will go into consulting right out of school will go to a place like Accenture, Deloitte, E&Y, etc. They like to take people fresh out of school and mold them. It tends to be an up or out culture (a bit less than in the past, but not entirely gone), with long hours, a lot of travel, and a big financial payoff if you get to the top layer of partner/principal. I worked for one of those firms for 10 years, and my son in law works for one now.
Typically those firms staff a project with a full team that’s a pyramid of a few experienced people at the top directing a larger staff of more junior people. Often the senior people are more visible and involved in the planning stage of the project, and once the direction is set, they involve the more junior staff in executing.
Thanks for the information. It clears up a few things for me. Also good information to pass onto my son who will be going to his first internship fair at school in January but he probably already knows this… Lol.
Younger s worked for a Chem E consulting company for a few years after college. He was interviewed by several. Met most of them at the college hiring fair. Others were word of mouth. Its a good way to gain experience.
DH and I are considered engineering consultants. We started our firm in 1999. It’s just the two of us. We gained experience for 13 years before we went out on our own. We work for architects, contractors, and larger engineering firms.
I agree that working for some kind of larger firm that does project-type work can be a great way to gain experience. You get to see different companies, business or technical problems, management styles, etc over the course of several years. I wouldn’t be half as good at what I do without those years spent at a large firm building skills. And, like @MaineLonghorn, eventually I struck out in my own.