Why use a consultant?
Choosing whether to go with a consultant or hiring a full time mechanical engineer boils down to time, money, and flexibility. Browse through the rest of this page to get more information and see which path works best for you. Feel free to reach out to us for any questions.
Time
When starting a new project, it is important to ask yourself the following four questions:
1. Do we just need advice and guidance or a full time mechanical engineer?If your project only needs advice or guidance, then the choice is very simple; find a good consultant. In many cases you may need a second opinion on a certain aspect of your design or facing problems outside of the expertise of your current staff. Reach out to a few consultants and see what they can offer you in terms of support, the first few correspondences are typically free until a statement of work is created and agreed to by both parties. Consultants usually charge by the hour or by the projected workload and therefore will cost much less than a full time mechanical engineer on your payroll.
2. When does the mechanical engineer need to start?Anyone in hiring can tell you that it is not simple or quick, especially in STEM fields. If you need a mechanical engineer immediately, it makes sense to start with a consultant at least until you can find a full time worker (if you determine your company needs one). It is much easier to find a reputable consulting firm to get you started quickly on your project than it is to go through the recruiting process and land your long term full time solution.
3. How long is this project going to last?Consultants will be more expensive on a per hour basis than a payrolled employee. If your project is going to be short term, or if you have a series of short term projects it could be cheaper to go with a consultant. You could even just need help in a few simple analyses. For more information on cost breakdown of a full time employee and a contractor, see the cost section below.
4. Do you need a full time mechanical engineer for the forseeable future?If your core technology is mechanical engineering based and you see a long product line for your company, you will need a full time mechanical engineer (or more likely several). If your company is not mechanically based and you only require the occasionally update on a case for your electronics, then a contracted mechanical engineer could be your best bet. Of course these are not the only occasions for which to consider outsourcing the engineering work, but it illustrates the point that you should consider your current and future plans so you can optimize where to spend your money.
Cost
You might have asked yourself before, why do consultants cost so much? A consultant will have a higher hourly rate than that of a standard employee; this is especially true if you are an employee looking at this and comparing to your own hourly rate or salary. A consultant firm has to pay for the salary of its employees in addition to overhead costs such as rent, utilities and supplies. As a rule of thumb the labor costs to an employer for an employee is about 130%-140% that of their salary, and you can see a general breakdown below. There is also an upfront cost associated with mechanical engineers that needs to be factored in. A mechanical engineer needs a CAD program, analysis programs, and most importantly a powerful enough computer to run their software on ($1500 is a minimum even for the most budget minded companies). The total upfront cost will be a minimum of around $28k, with recurring yearly license fees on the software.
Full Time Senior Mechanical Engineer Salary| Avg. salary NYC | $110,000 |
|---|---|
| Social Security (6.2%) | $6,820 |
| Medicare (1.45%) | $1,600 |
| Federal unemployment tax (6% of first 7k) | $420 |
| State unemployment tax (3.925% for new employee) | $4,310 |
| Workers comp (1.5% on average) | $1,650 |
| Health insurance (single - family) | $5,000 - $13,000 |
| Vacation (3 weeks) | $8,000 |
| 401k/stock benefits | $7,000 |
| Total | $144,800 - $152,800 |
| Computer | > $1,500 |
|---|---|
| CAD software | $8,000 + $2,000/yr |
| FEA software | $11,000 + $3,500/yr |
| Mathematical computing software | $2,200 |
| Tools for measurement/validation/prototyping | $500 | Total | $28,700 |
The currently hourly cost at Vizeng is $150/hr. The breakeven point for hiring a full time employee would be just over 30 full time weeks, however it is very rare for a single project to take that many man hours. Depending on the complexity, you can expect a single project to take about 3-4 months of mechanical engineering work at about 30 hours a week with the hours tailing off after that just for management of tooling, testing, and validation.
Flexibility
To put it bluntly, if you don't like the service of your consultant or your funds are running out you can just stop the work moving forward with no drawbacks. With a full time employee you would have to arrange for severance, COBRA, unemployment, and possibly have to worry about legal repercussions.