Consulting Engineering to Forensic Engineering

[jmbelectrical]

After nearly 17 years in consulting engineering, I am almost certain that I would like to make a career change into forensic engineering. Getting out of the office, performing investigations, using instruments and tools, writing reports, and, in my case, determining how or why something may have burned down or otherwise failed - all of this really appeals to me. Surprisingly, (at least, to me) family and friends have even commented that forensic engineering sounds like it's right up my alley.

Has anyone made a similar move? How well did your experience in consulting translate to forensics, if at all? What do you enjoy about it? What do you not enjoy? Is there any other advice you can give to someone in my situation? My biggest concern deals with how well I'll adapt after doing something completely different and seemingly unrelated for the last 17 years.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[msquared48]

For me, it seemed like a logical transition as I got older with more diversified experience. In 60 years, I have seen a lot of structural history.

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA, HI)

 

[EngineeringEric]

Are you looking for a firm to join or start your own?

If thinking of working for a firm or a group of consultants i think it is a simple transition assuming you love unknown puzzles, possible legal talk, and solid documentation.

If going solo... i think it would be hard. I started as a green structural and went to a firm that does structural engineering and forensics and i learned a lot from the forensic side, fast. but i also learned how to write a solid report. how to discuss a job with client and other parties, what lines to walk, how to word something that doesn't cast blame (its a lawyers job to determine who's responsible not mine)

 

[jmbelectrical]

EngineeringEric,

I'm looking to join a firm, and I'm actually in the process of interviewing with a firm right now.

 

[Ron]

jmb...my practice is primarily forensic work (structural and building envelope) and was a natural progression over the years as I gained experience, as Mike noted. If you are joining an established forensic firm then you will likely get worked into the field, usually through initial data collection under a more experienced engineer.

I had been doing small amounts of forensic work for many years but it grew to the point that it was about 75 percent of my practice.

I would suggest that you educate yourself on forensic practice and expert witness work. Your integrity in the business must override everything. There will often be times when attorneys or other clients will want you to say what they want to hear. You can't do that unless it is the truth. You will be faced with telling a client that their premise is wrong and you can't support it. You can do that professionally without getting a reputation of being hard to deal with. ASTM has some guidelines on expert witness work and several of the engineering societies have some guidelines as well.

Our practice has 4 experienced engineers. We work on both the plaintiff side and the defense side. Try not to get locked into one or the other exclusively. Our mantra is and always will be "We don't care who pays the bill....the engineering answer is the same." You can help the defense side even if they are wrong because you can help them mitigate overzealous opinions by plaintiff's experts and can often show that liability must be shared by others. The plaintiff side is a bit easier, since you only have to find the reason for the failure and attribute the cause to one or more of the various participants if not a single responsible entity.

 

[krisys]

You can try in some quality assurance companies. They may have a department to conduct the Root Cause Analysis (RCA). This is a very interesting assignment.
It is a kind of failure analysis.

 

[NOLAscience]

They may have a department to conduct the Root Cause Analysis (RCA). This is a very interesting assignment.
It is a kind of failure analysis.

This is what I want to do.... As jmbelectrical said above, it's what I do, naturally and it's right up my alley.

 

[skeletron]

Find a firm that does restoration work or insurance work for repairs/assessments.