Considering a Career in Consulting: The Ins & Outs

Dr Gary Blank, a consultant and VP of IEEE-USA Career and Member Services, gave a tutorial on consulting in the Continuing Education Career Development track (track 2). The presentation comes from part 1 in a larger tutorial that the speaker normally gives:

1. How to get started
2. How to set fees
3. How to win contracts
4. How to find clients

The presentation started by defining a consultant as someone who works independently. He then covered the current consulting climate. The recession has hurt the consulting market but on the bright side layoffs have created opportunities for consultants as companies sometimes over cut and then need consultants in their place.

He covered a number of common myths about consulting. You need an email address and a phone number but you shouldn't sit by the phone expecting business to come to you. You need to be a certified Professional Engineer (PE) to call yourself a consulting engineering . You may make a lot of money for a given task but may not be able to find work year around. There will be politics wherever you go. Some good points are that you're self employed, get tax benefits, and can work at home sometimes.

He then covered the reasons to become a consulting an engineer. In addition to the reasons described above, he gave a story about how it can be used to provide income during a career switch.

Next he covered common details and concerns about getting started. You don't need an office. You do need to advertise but not in the yellow pages. You rarely need a security clearance. You need to be easy to reach but you don't need a fictitious name. You need to keep records for taxes, get business cards, a business license, liability insurance (which you can get through IEEE-USA), stationary, resumes, computer, e-mail address, website, and clients. Incorporation is optional.

He last talked about how IEEE-USA can be useful to starting a career in consulting. He showed where the resources can be found on the IEEE-USA website. IEEE does a survey of consultants fees, which you can use to determine how much you should be charging. You can pay $79/year to be listed on a database of consultants, which should help you find clients. You can join a local consultants network, which has recently expanded outside the US. Last, there are consultants workshops that you can participate in.