This was indeed an interview for a tech position. I was exaggerating about the design aspect so I’ll retract that. We do however have techs who interface with customers and who coordinate projects. From your responses I’d guess this is very unusual and thus my experience is a bit of an outlier. Maybe you could give the original asker better advice, I think anyone reading would benefit if you did.
I thought your advice to look for contract gigs was pretty good. I'd only add that I worked in that space for a while and consultancies are generally either desperate for work or desperate for help. If they're desperate for help they will be busy enough you will have to call and call to get them to talk to you, but if they don't completely shut you down, keep trying.
Or go work for a company that makes products. You will learn a whole lot of things about bringing a product to production that you will not learn at pretty much any product development consultancy.
Note that right now in 2022 just about everyone is desperate for help. Be sure you like doing parts substitutions.
I've hired layout shops where we worked with the designer more or less directly but at "whole product" design shops, if they even have a layout designer, in my limited experience it's not usually a customer facing position.
