How to Interview Consultants on Evaluation and Validation Techniques
Companies often hire consultants because they need specialty services or help with something that cannot be found within the organization. Oftentimes these consultants provide evaluation and validation to a company's in-house training programs, software adaptations or other services and processes. Knowing how to interview a consultant on his evaluation and validation techniques becomes important when considering his services for hire. Enlist multiple colleagues' assistance and viewpoints to obtain more than one opinion and to gain additional insight about a consultant during an interview.
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Instructions
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Evaluate a consultant's resume or portfolio in advance of the interview to ensure his qualifications are a fit with company needs. Prescreen applicants through phone interviews and set up a list of qualified consultants for further interviews. Valid consultants provide references and even work samples. Be aware of possible bait and switch tactics that signal whether the consultant is truly qualified. Some consultants are not legitimate and provide resumes of other people's experience. Check references in advance of scheduling interviews. Make appointments for qualified candidates to participate in a face-to-face interview.
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Prepare questions before the interview. Create a list of the questions to be asked during the interview. Include questions on the list that ask him to discuss his evaluation methods and how he validates programs, processes or systems. Write up a mock program for which the candidate expounds upon during the interview to provide a sample of his evaluation and validation methods. Other questions to ask him include expounding upon his experience and talking about successfully completed projects.
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Implement a team interview to evaluate the consultant from multiple perspectives. An experienced consultant effectively interacts in a group environment. Provide the interview team with the list of interview questions created ahead of time. Include at least one person from human resources to ensure that all the questions are properly phrased to avoid legal issues.
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Ensure the candidate knows his field. If the candidate uses a lot of jargon, but can't answer a direct question or expound upon his methods further, this raises a red flag. The qualified candidate, besides knowing the industry buzzwords, can thoroughly explain the methods he uses to evaluate and validate a company's programs, systems or processes. Ask specific questions, not general ones. Request clarification if anything is unclear.
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Complete the mock task during the interview. Ask the consultant to show how he would actually evaluate an internal system, and then subsequently validate it. Be prepared in advance with any supporting materials he may need to use to demonstrate his methods. This technique may be the most worthwhile because it demonstrates how the consultant handles sudden challenges and executes them.
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Evaluate the level of proficiency and the time taken to accomplish the task to determine the expertise of the consultant and whether or not he matches the company's needs. Review the input from other team members present during the interview and choose the candidate based upon the group's decision.
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References
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