The Transition From Engineer To Claims Consultant

As the need for claims consultants continues to rise in Hong Kong, the demand for quality candidates is far outweighing the supply. With this in mind, Maxim has recently helped a number of major International consultancies and smaller specialist claims consultant organisations find some outstanding new employees. Many of these new employees have followed a slightly different route into the world of claims and arbitration through having more diverse backgrounds than just already being claims specialists. Let me explain further in case this is of interest to other employers and potential jobseekers.

We’ve been having great success in placing qualified engineers into claims consultant vacancies and this has happened because we have been able to introduce high calibre engineering candidates with the ‘right profile’ into career-enhancing claims work.

By ‘right profile’, I mean that when looking at CV’s we are searching for engineers with certain characteristics – both in terms of experience, interest & attitude;
• Your current role could be as a contract engineer or a project engineer.
• You have had some experience with contracts in the past such as; tender preparation, contract administration or cost control and enjoyed it.
• You will likely be a university graduate and ideally a chartered member of a professional organisation.
• You will have an interest in pursuing an LLM in Law or post grad diploma in arbitration/mediation or similar
• You could be currently working as a planner or engineer and have an interest in doing more explicit claims related work
• You will be dynamic and ambitious.

In my opinion the last point is the most important for any candidate. Your qualifications and experience will speak for itself on a well prepared CV. If you present yourself as energetic, keen to learn and appear eager to join an organisation you will make a lasting impression on any potential employer and given the opportunity to attend interview, will be able to show your potential beyond the ‘pigeon-hole’ of your current experience to date.

There are many other positives to joining a consultancy such as a clear career progression pathway, opportunities to travel throughout the region and a 5 day working week, which makes the move from engineering contracting work to a claims consultancy role very attractive to many people as their desire to progress their career strengthens.

If you are currently an engineer or a planner & would like to chat further about career opportunities in claims in Hong Kong, please contact me and I will be happy to assist you.

Ben Roberts
Recruitment Consultant
Maxim Recruitment Hong Kong & Asia Region