Becoming a Consultant

Abstract

Chris and Fred discuss how to become a reliability engineering consultant. Is this something you are interested in?

Key Points

Join Chris and Fred as they discuss how you go about becoming a reliability engineering consultant. There are lots of consultants out there … so surely it is easy to do … right?

Topics include:

Consulting is like parenthood. Everyone knows what parenthood technically entails before you become one. But until you become a parent, you don’t really understand what it is like. Same with consulting. You might be able to technically understand what a consultant does and how they earn money, but until you take the plunge and become used to not having money coming in between clients, spend more time on marketing yourself than your actual work and so on, you can’t understand precisely what it takes.
If consulting was easy, then everyone would be doing it. Some people like the idea of being a consultant (being your own boss, setting your own schedule, answering to no one et cetera). But you need to be extroverted, engaging, and able to communicate how you can change the life of your potential clients. You might be the world’s best reliability engineer, but if you can’t seek out and make connections with prospective clients, it won’t matter.
Not having a good resumé means you won’t get hired. Only having a good resumé also means you won’t get hired. A lot of ‘wannabe’ consultants believe that all they need to have is a set of qualifications and experience that dominates everyone else. These same ‘wannabe’ consultants get angry and frustrated when consultants they deem inferior get more work than they do. Resumés don’t tell clients how you are good at solving problems. This comes from your communication and messaging.
I’m not going to share my knowledge through articles and podcasts and webinars … people need to pay me for that! Consulting is based on Karma. The more you share, the more you get back. If you don’t share at least some of your knowledge, and how you are skillful at implementing the tools and skills contained within your knowledge … then how does anyone else know how good you are? You have to share lots of knowledge and be prepared to help lots of people without the guarantee of reward in order to convince people that you are the right person for the job.

Enjoy an episode of Speaking of Reliability. Where you can join friends as they discuss reliability topics. Join us as we discuss topics ranging from design for reliability techniques to field data analysis approaches.