technical and engineering jobs (Hilo, Kailua: sales, to rent, how much)

[Drey1891]

Hello! We are planning on moving to the Kailua-Kona from Pittsburgh in July. I have a job lined up and we are working on securing housing. My husband is a mechanical engineer. Our plan is for him to quit his job (obviously) and start a freelancing/consulting business on the big island. We may also bring a 3-d printer and have him do some rapid prototyping work as well.

Does anyone know if there is a need for much engineering consulting services outside of construction?

Most of his experience is in robotics and medical devices, as well as sheet metal fabrication. He is not looking specifically for a full time job (although if one was available, he'd take it). But he's looking for as needed consulting work. He could work with companies in Hilo as well, or try to market himself as a telecommuter back on the mainland. Anyone in Hawaii doing something similar, that has any helpful advice?

Thank you!

[eureka1]

Don't you think you should research the demand for your services before you make plans to move? Or are you planningto live on one salary?

[Drey1891]

Thank you for your reply. Part of what I'm doing now is researching. I was looking for any personal or inside information that people might have.

There are several engineering firms on the island, but none is hiring right now. There is the National Energy lab as well. We are also going to send inquiries/announcements to these firms once we have his consulting website up and running. In addition, his current job says that they will have some consulting work for him even after he moves.

My salary will be sufficient to live on, although of course extra is always hepful. We are aware of the cost of living.

What I was looking for in this forum was any inside knowledge that anyone has or helpful starting points for additional research. There's only so much you can get from Google.

[TwoPearls]

Originally Posted by Drey1891

Hello! We are planning on moving to the Kailua-Kona from Pittsburgh in July. I have a job lined up and we are working on securing housing. My husband is a mechanical engineer. Our plan is for him to quit his job (obviously) and start a freelancing/consulting business on the big island. We may also bring a 3-d printer and have him do some rapid prototyping work as well.

Does anyone know if there is a need for much engineering consulting services outside of construction?

Most of his experience is in robotics and medical devices, as well as sheet metal fabrication. He is not looking specifically for a full time job (although if one was available, he'd take it). But he's looking for as needed consulting work. He could work with companies in Hilo as well, or try to market himself as a telecommuter back on the mainland. Anyone in Hawaii doing something similar, that has any helpful advice?

Thank you!

Hi, Drey-

What kind of consulting related to mechanical engineering does your husband do? Robotics? Does he primarily do rapid prototyping? I ask because my husband and I own a consulting business for which manufacturing plants are our clientele. (We do a different kind of consulting, but it is an extremely niche area of predictive maintenance servicing manufacturing facilities, power plants, food production & packaging plants, etc.) We have clients all over the country, but only one in Hawaii; on Oahu. We haven't aggressively pursued Hawaii business. However, I can tell you our impression is that aggressive pursuit of clients in Hawaii is what's necessary to garner consulting business there.

There are ways to check your competition, obviously. For our type of work, there simply is no competition on island. And most facilities in Hawaii aren't even implementing programs such as ours. This would be considered foolish in facilities on the East Coast, but preventive maintenance is (a little) lower on the priority list as you move West. In Hawaii, such program implementation is rare. SO, consultants must not only sell their company's level of expertise and prominence, but also the importance of the service itself!

Many of our new clientele is established when a plant manager or P.E. in charge of maintenance moves to another company and wants our service at their new employer. This is, primarily, how our business has spread to other parts of the country where we weren't actively pursuing work. It's worth looking into who your husband has worked with to find possible connections to Hawaii. Also, ask/research these questions:
How unusual is your husband's type of consulting in Hawaii?
What is the prevalence of potential clientele there and are those potentials actually wanting/needing his type of service? (this answer may surprise you, disappoint you)
What percentage of his service is required on site? (Can basic troubleshooting and continued work be completed remotely, thus making living in Hawaii more doable.)

Off the top of my head, the obvious employers for mechanical engineer salaried positions on the Big Island would be Hilo Medical Center (facility maintenance), the handful of companies operating telescopes on Mauna Kea (this is a reach, but it depends on how much of their work is on-island), or numerous power plants (of various types and locations). Again, though, it depends on the details of your husband's past experience.

If you're savvy on LinkedIn, you can find all sorts of contacts and info about companies doing work in Hawaii.
Good luck to you!

[hotzcatz]

Aggressive isn't usually island style, though and can turn a lot of potential clients off. It's mostly about who you know and who recommends you, although for mechanical engineering, sometimes they use folks they don't know since there isn't anyone who they do know who can do it.

Any consulting he can bring with him from the mainland would be best.

There isn't much manufacturing done in Hawaii. Almost none, really. However, setting up a "Maker" space might be interesting. Then he could have folks come in and use the prototype machine (under his supervision, of course) and other engineering sorts of things. I think they have a maker space in Hilo, now. I've heard there's one but I've not looked.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Aggressive isn't usually island style, though and can turn a lot of potential clients off. It's mostly about who you know and who recommends you

Aggressive is a huge turn off even here in Oahu. Closes a lot of doors quicky.

[Drey1891]

Thanks for all the replies!

@Pearls- I suspect you mean agressive in that you are always networking and getting your message out there, rather than hard selling? I appreciate the advice about having to educate your clientele about what the service even is and why it might be valuable.

@hotz- That's exactly the type of thing we're thinking about, although we would be happy to rent out the 3-D printer for use, Husband would also offer his services to people who don't know how to use CAD, want pointers on their designs, or can't afford a decent CAD software package (he has several). He also has experience with sheet metal fabrication and woodworking. It might be interesting to set up a larger scale maker space. That's a great idea, would probably do some research into interest once we get there. Sounds like that would be really useful in such an isolated area.

[tpirsig]

"The Makery" in Hilo.

[TwoPearls]

Originally Posted by Drey1891

Thanks for all the replies!

@Pearls- I suspect you mean agressive in that you are always networking and getting your message out there, rather than hard selling? I appreciate the advice about having to educate your clientele about what the service even is and why it might be valuable.

Exactly. Anyone who owns a business where they have to pursue clients knows that "aggressive" sales doesn't mean doggedly harassing potential clients. This isn't used car sales. Rather, it's about persistence and continual presence, meeting them on their terms/ground. I doubt the other posters are engineers, nor do they have experience with this field's clientele on the islands or anywhere else.

Our experience working in predictive maintenance consultation on Oahu has not been different from how we work with our mainland clients. With the exception of one maintenance supervisor, all of the team we work with there were originally mainlanders, and I'm not under the impression locals are heavily involved in our field. Nevertheless, "aggressively" putting yourself out there, with respect and persistence, (on-island or off) is paramount. It's just a slower build-up of clientele on the islands, requiring more patience and persistence.

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by TwoPearls

<SNIP> I doubt the other posters are engineers, nor do they have experience with this field's clientele on the islands or anywhere else.<SNIP>

Whoops! Guess again! The experience of the folks on this forum is all across the board and all over the place. Although, it's your opinion, so you can doubt us if you like.

There's a couple of 3D printers that I know of on the island already, Drey, but most of them are pretty much only in use by their owners. There is a lot of woodworking done on the island with some really nice tropical hardwoods and a lot of galleries which sell fine woodworking, too. That could be a nice profitable hobby, especially if he can use his 3D printer to make things to be sold. I don't know if it would make enough to live on, but every little bit helps.

There is a demand for residential drafting although as an engineer, he'd not make as much doing drafting as engineering. Some of the power plants may need an engineer, has he checked with HECO? They'd need mechanical engineers as well as the electrical ones, I'd expect.