If I were to hire me, here are a few things that I would keep in mind.
- Most engineers accumulate charges on an hourly basis. Sucessful project budgets typically have a reasonable time line, and not a lot of delays or drawn out schedule. More time usually equals more charges.
- Who do you interact best with in your social circle? People that treat each other the way they would like to be treated typically receive the best services. Everyone is excited to work with clients that are fair, understanding, pay on time, and generally a pleasure to spend time with. More importantly, when good clients are in a bind, you can be sure their engineer/scientist will do all they can to help out in a time of need!
- The cheapest labor rate staff aren’t necessarily the most efficient. If it takes a $90/hr junior scientist 4 hours to do what a $160/hr scientist could do in 2 hours, it costs more…..and the $160/hr scientist probably still has to spend time helping the young engineer.
- There are good people everywhere. The biggest and smallest of companies have exceptional and not-so-exceptional people, and different folks appreciate different people characteristics. Who are the people that you will be working with, regardless of the company?
- Property access agreements can be done by anyone. It isn’t necessarily the best use of budget to have an engineer or scientist negotiate property access. Anything that can be done to allow and engineering/scientist to focus more quickly on what they do best, typically will reduce project time (and budget).
- How engaged do I need to be? Do meetings or status reports every day or week add value or just run up the budget and delay progress? What are the key elements that need to be reviewed prior to proceeding?
- Many times the best technical people aren’t the most practical or efficient people.
Maybe I am correct, maybe not. These are just some things I have learned from people smarter than me, or based on my own experience.