Interested in Consultancy Work

Civil Eng

Hey guys,

I've been working as a self-employed engineer for a number of years now and it's worked out pretty in so-far as I've made a decent living out of it. However, I do have a gripe. All the work that I have been doing to date has been, broadly speaking, project management work. Which is fine but it no longer excites me. Ideally, I would love to be doing work as a self-employed engineer but more consultancy related?

I'm finding it very difficult to break into this field as a self-employed engineer particularly I suppose as my experience to date has been project management bias.

Any advise out there on how I could re-orientate my work profile?

r3nu4l

First off, adjust your title on your LinkedIn profile, assuming you have one. If you don't, then get one up and running.

Your title shouldbe something like:
Independent consultant
Project management consultant
Civil engineering consultant

You get the idea. Then join some LinkedIn groups related to engineering consultancy (also som e Irish specific groups if they are out there) and start some threads asking about how to source clients. Use the groups to find out what type of projects other people are working on and start posting there as well, answering some questions. Make sure your profiles says that you are interested in consulting offers.

That's only the start but it's a good start.
Note, I'm not an engineer but I am a consultant in medical communications so I have some idea of how this works. Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

Civil Eng

Some of work that I would like to break into would be:

Architectural services/drafing
Environmental Engineering
Structural Engineering
Sustainability and renewables