To answer your question regarding consulting: In order to be a “real” consultant, you need years of experience. Companies will usually reach out to you specifically for special projects that need to be done and will look for you to advise on how to complete it. I think the best path for doing consulting in engineering is to create your own consulting company at some point. There are business consulting firms also (The Big 4: Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Deloitte, KPMG) where they focus mostly on financial consulting, however I do know they have done consulting for medical device companies in terms of project management and supply chain.

Don’t get this confused with consulting that is done through a contracting company. That is completely different but they tend to call it consulting as well. They usually hire people to work on specific projects that companies need done and these companies reach out to them to find someone. Its usually an hourly rate and for a fixed term and without benefits. This is good way to get experience if you can’t get an employee status in a company.
But essentially how it works:
-Medical Device Company reaches out to big consulting firm (Ex. Kelly Services / Adecco) and says we will give you $80,000 to find us a Biomedical Engineer
-The consulting firm post the job and says “We are looking for a Biomedical Engineering for a Medical Device Company and the hourly rate is ~$29/hr (roughly $60,000).
-Consulting firm keeps that $20,000 dollar difference
-You take the job but you are an employee of the consulting firm NOT the medical company. They sometimes stress that to you for legal reasons.

More importantly, what are the pros and cons of this:
Pros:
– Good way to get experience if you are struggling trying to get a job as an employee. The recruiters are usually more open to hiring people even if they don’t fit the qualifications completely.
– Sometimes the the company will hire you as an employee after your contracting term is up.
– Hourly rate leads to working overtime. Overtime in the state of NJ pays 1.5 times more than the hourly rate. However, the contracting companies will fight your overtime hours.

Cons:
– No job security. Once the agreed term is over, they are allowed to let you go unless the company chooses to re-new your contract
– Most of the time, no benefits or decent benefits
– Sometimes the company you are consulting for doesn’t allow contractors to use the perks of the company

Thats basically how it works.