| |
The consulting side of the business offers mechanical
engineers career opportunities in large and small engineering
service firms and in private practice. Some engineers
start a consulting practice later in life, often following
long careers with a corporation. There are several key
advantages that smaller companies offer: a more personalized
work environment in which contributions are often more
acknowledged by colleagues than in larger organizations
and greater inter-dependency among the staff in achieving
the company's objectives. In addition, smaller companies
can offer greater opportunites to think creatively,
autonomously, and "out-of-the-box."
| There's
no typical day, and if it starts to get typical,
I think I'd probably get very bored. But there's
an awful lot of customer interface, a lot of working
with the customer. I can do a lot of the work --
sending copies of contracts, documents, etc. --
over the Internet. But when you go to do things,
you really still need that face-to-face presence,
and people need to be assured that you are there,
as opposed to just a voice on the box. So I think
that's very important, that they need to see you
in person. So the customer service end of it is
very time-consuming. - Kathryn Ingle, Consulting
Engineer |
|
