Over the past eight years, I’ve evaluated a number of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects, about two per year, on average. This and a follow-up post (to come) sum up things I’ve learned.
The post is mainly aimed at evaluators who haven’t conducted USAID evaluations but are interested in doing so, or are just curious about how the process works.
I’ll go over the somewhat dry, but important nuts and bolts issues of doing USAID evaluations as an independent consultant. The next post on this subject will cover implementing the evaluations.
Some context
For those who may not have great familiarity with it, USAID is the largest U.S. bilateral development agency. It devotes budget resources to helping countries in the name of U.S. national security and economic prosperity . These days, that amounts to over $19 billion worth of foreign assistance. (The Department of State manages a similar amount.) That’s a tiny slice of the total U.S. annual budget of $4.4 trillion, as of 2019.
Interestingly enough, after four years of the Trump Administration, both USAID and its budget have survived largely intact. Given the attitudes expressed by the President on the subject of foreigners and the countries they live in, this might seem surprising. However, foreign assistance is generally a low priority for most American presidents, and quite possibly off the radar for the 45th.
Although USAID funds hundreds of projects that vary in focus, scope, size and geographic location, they have one thing in common: at some point, they all get evaluated. That’s where evaluators come in.
USAID’s guidelines call for its country offices to spend between 5 and 10 percent on personnel resources for performance management and, out of that, to earmark about 3 percent on external performance and impact evaluation. A rough, back-of-the-envelope estimate suggests this is equivalent to somewhere between $14 and $28 million per year on evaluations. Dozens of companies vie for these contracts, and they rely heavily on independent consultants to put their evaluation teams together.
Nationality
Work on USAID evaluations is not restricted to US citizens. It is qualifications, not nationality, that matter.
Often, evaluation team members hired by consultant firms are not even based in the US. I’ve been on teams made up of colleagues of all nationalities, who live all over the world, and we only meet in the country of the assignment to do the field work.
Some firms have a policy of prioritizing the hiring of country nationals. This makes sense, as there are no international travel costs, locals know the country better and are well-connected, not to mention that their rates are lower, reflecting the local labor market conditions. COVID-related travel restrictions have created even more opportunities for country nationals.
English language skills are important for evaluation team members, but not every team member needs to be proficient in written English.
A typical team includes a mix of international consultants and local consultants. I’ve been on teams as small as two and as large as eight, not including any surveyors responsible for collecting quantitative data.
The diversity that comes from a mix of international and local perspectives improves the quality of an evaluation. International consultants bring experience from work in other countries, while local consultants know their own country better than anyone from outside.
Contractual arrangements
On evaluations, individual consultants are contracted under what is referred to Short Term Technical Assistance, or STTA. The alternative would be to work as a full-time staff for the consulting firm.
Individual consultants never work directly for USAID on evaluations, in my experience. They are always sub-contracted by private firms or NGOs that have contract with USAID.
Sometimes the staff from the firms are part of evaluation teams, but usually they provide managerial support, directing and managing the evaluation process. This includes liaising with USAID, handling administration and logistics issues, ensuring deadlines are met, quality control, report formatting, etc.
Daily rate
USAID contracts pay by the day. That means they are based on a daily rate, and on a set number of days agreed to in advance.
In development lingo, contract days are referred to as “level of effort’ or LOE. The term actually makes sense, since the number of days signals the amount of effort you are expected to put in. It should guide you when managing your time.
For example, if you are subcontracted as a STTA by a firm (the contractor) to do a USAID evaluation, you may get 40 days of work (your LOE is 40), which is what you have to finalize all the work. I’ve had contracts from 22 to 60 days, with 45 being the average.
On their invoices, however, normally consultants are asked to bill by the hour. Most consulting firms will have their won combination invoice/timesheet template which consultants are asked to complete and submit on a monthly basis.
There is a maximum USAID rate, or “USAID max,” above which contractors will almost never go. In 2020 the USAID maximum was $698 per day. I’ve only heard of one case where a consultant refused to take USAID max, which was well below her standard rate. She told the firm that wanted to hire her, “This my rate, take it or leave it.” She got the contract. That type of case seems to be rare, however. It is up to you whether you are willing to work for USAID max, try to negotiate more, or not work on USAID evaluations.
Beyond the total amount you receive in fees (your daily rate times the number of contract days), all your expenses will be covered. This includes hotel, meals and incidentals, communication, and transportation. You will also normally receive a standard per diem (set by the Foreign Service) to cover meals and incidentals.
Firms usually place consultants in very decent hotels. This is not Peace Corps work where you live in a village for months and years at a time. There is little chance of going native while doing an evaluation.
The biodata form
USAID uses what’s called a biodata form (technically the Contractor Employee Biographical Data Sheet) also referred to as the “1420 form.” As a consultant, you need to fill it out by listing all your employment or assignments going back three years. It only gives you three lines, though. So, if you have had more than three assignments during that time period (which applies to most consultants), simply attach an addendum to the form listing the rest.
In the past, the 1420 form had a column for salary or daily rate for each assignments. Asking about salary history is no longer legal in many US states, as it puts the consultant at a disadvantage, so the form no longer has a column for salary. However, consultant firms will probably still ask you to provide a rationale for why you are requesting x for your daily rate.
The contractor role
The firm that hires consultants normally provides good management and back-office support. It may also provide one or more of the team members. The firm will manage the schedule, arrange travel, hire local firms or consultants, manage the relationship with USAID, and relieve you of other administrative matters. This allows you, as a core team member, to focus on the substantive aspects of the evaluation.
There are firms that take good care of their consultants and are professional in managing the entire process. If you have a good experience with them, and they have a good experience with you, chances are high that you will work with them again. There are also bad firms that you will want to avoid. Working for an unfamiliar firm means taking a risk. Sometimes the risk is worth it.
Evaluation schedule
USAID doesn’t tend to dawdle, at least once the evaluation is ready to start. It is best to approach USAID evaluations in a spirit of ruthless efficiency. The entire evaluation may be completed in 3-6 months and you may only get 10 days or less to draft a final report. This is in stark contrast to the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) timelines, where an evaluation can drag on for years and years.
How to get work on USAID projects
A question that comes up a lot is, how can I work on a USAID evaluation if I haven’t worked on one before? That’s because consulting firms, when hiring for a USAID evaluation, are looking for prior USAID experience. That can be a hurdle. (USAID vets the proposed evaluation team, by the way, and can ask a firm to replace a consultant if they don’t believe he or she is qualified.)
Of course, logic dictates that, at some point, every single person working on a USAID evaluation (or a USAID project, or at USAID itself, for that matter) initially had no USAID experience. My advice is, get as close as you can to the real thing – maybe you were on a project that partnered with USAID, or have done an evaluation project with a different US agency, or worked on an assignment for a similar bilateral agency? Those are all possible entry points for the would be novice USAID evaluator.
It can also happen that a firm is simply desperate for someone with your qualifications, and that will be enough to force the door open. It also never hurts to demonstrate your enthusiasm and eagerness to do the work. Recruiters like to see that spark of interest, and it can make you stand out. I find that the work is, in fact, often interesting, and usually enjoyable.
Having worked on a number of USAID evaluations, I’ve come away with an overall positive impression – the work that’s done is, by and large of good quality, and really does seem to help people. Which, as a U.S. taxpayer, is good to see.
This blog post proposes — based on my experience in international development — the key qualities of a good colleague or team member.
People come in packages made up a vast set of qualities, attributes, skills, quirks, and what have you. The seven I present here for your consideration just seem like the essential ones to me. Quite possibly, a few will apply outside the international development field as well.
Twenty years looking back
It’s now been 20 years since I began working in this field. (Back then, when looking ahead, 20 years seemed like an almost endless expanse of time; looking back, the period seems oddly brief. Anyway…) In May 2000 I arrived in Albania for an internship that turned into my first consultant job. I hit the ground running, unleashed after an unsatisfying career stretch alternating, sometimes daily, between a dead-end finance job and pursuit of a pie-in-the-sky acting career in New York City. Enrolling in a Master’s degree program in international relations was, finally, the pivot that launched what would become a far more rewarding career.
Two decades, several dozen countries, and thousands of professional relationships later, I can say that I fully subscribe to the following received wisdom: it’s the people who make or break programs and projects.
Fair enough, you say, but what kind of people? What sort of qualities do well-rounded professionals, the kind of people you want to work with and for, embody? And…what sort of qualities will make other people want to work with me?
Seven key attributes
1) Professionalism. I use this as a catch-all term to encompass the range of behaviors considered “normal” in the work sphere, from reliability and trustworthiness to responsiveness and collegiality. There are many unwritten codes of conduct but it isn’t necessarily difficult to act in a professional way. Observing more seasoned colleagues is not a bad place to start. Nonetheless, I’m still surprised how some people fail to follow up with a “thank you” after an interview, or fail to respond to an email request. If you’re too busy, a simple one-line response along the lines of “I wish I could help, but I’m tied up with other work at the moment,” would not seem a lot to ask. Beyond the work itself, acting in a professional manner has implications simply for maintaining good relationships.
2) Management ability. This ability is useful for everyone, even those not in charge of teams or departments. I refer to management in the broadest sense — using the available resources, or finding additional ones, to achieve a goal. You may not be in charge of other people if you are, say, a junior staffer or work independently, outside an organization. However, even then, if you can’t manage tasks, or your time and work relationships, you are inviting unnecessary agony into your life. Plan and prioritize what needs doing, in whatever way that makes sense to you. Plenty of people still keep handwritten daily and weekly “to do” lists. I get much satisfaction out of crossing off tasks as they get done. Managing relationships may be more of an art than a science, but it is a skill no less important for all that.
3) Technical skills. These are the specialized skills for which we are usually hired: e.g. setting up a health clinic, running data analysis software, analyzing electricity tariff structures, conducting cost-benefit analysis, and so on. Such skills are developed through a combination of education, book learning and experience. With some adjustments, they can be transferable. Knowing how a state-owned water utility operates helps in understanding how a state-owned electric utility works. Early in my career, I conducted a fair amount of socio-economic analyses of World Bank-financed projects. That stood me in good stead when I later expanded to USAID project evaluations.
4) Critical thinking. We can also call this common sense. I include here abilities such as seeing the big picture, connecting the dots, asking the right questions, applying logic to a problem, seeing things in a new or useful way. Data analysis software is hugely important and has greatly facilitated our ability to analyze vast amounts of information. However, even in the context of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the performance of the human mind remains formidable. It has been estimated that our brains can process anywhere from 10 to 100 terabytes of information. While supercomputers now have faster processing speeds and storage capacity, the human brain is vastly more efficient. And humans can think and imagine, while computers can still only retrieve information and run algorithms. We probably still have a few decades before we’re overtaken by machines. Use the time to your advantage.
5) Writing. Not very distant from — and rather dependent on — critical thinking, is writing ability. Your colleagues and managers will be very grateful for your clear, succinct, and grammatically correct prose. This applies both at a structural level and at the level of sentences and even words. The gold standard in the English-speaking world, at least, is clarity: you should be able to explain things in a way that your grandmother could understand. I once asked a World Bank manager what, for him, was the most important quality he looked for in a consultant. Without hesitation, he replied “good writing skills.” Once you’ve finished the job, the documents you produced may often be the only tangible thing attributable to your efforts. If they are made publicly available, they will last and may influence the work of others.
6) Experience. Essentially, this is the ability to apply the past to the present, and to place the current situation, its problems and opportunities, within a broader context. By definition, experience takes time to build. However, that doesn’t mean every person with 20 years under their belt has the same amount of sagesse. Not all experience has the same value. The more work you do in a given time period, the more experience you will collect. That’s basic math. The more attentive you are, the more you will learn as you’re doing it. If you mindlessly play a piece 100 times on the piano, you probably won’t memorize it. If you practice with intent, however, you will learn it by heart even while playing it less. Diversity of experience, across countries, clients and sectors is key. As the author Stephen Covey pointed out, “Some people say they have twenty years, when in reality, they only have one year’s experience, repeated twenty times.”
7) Energy and enthusiasm. None of the above counts for much if your work makes you tired, cynical or lazy. This the ace that young people have up their sleeve, to compensate for their lack of experience. The term “passion” is often used in this context, but I admit being lukewarm on the concept. In my experience, the people who bring too much passion to their work tend to be less than emotionally stable. You can’t sustain passion forever, and so it’s not something that can be counted on. Or, the passionate types are also ruthlessly ambitious, elbowing their way up through the hierarchy. Generally, colleagues or counterparts that run on passion are hard to be around. (Save your passion for the bedroom or the ballpark.) However, energy and enthusiasm channeled toward a project are very welcome traits in colleagues. They can be infectious, and even enhance the quality of everyone else’s work. They also go a long way toward compensating for weaknesses in other areas. The trick is staying motivated. Having a clear, overarching goal – which could be as simple as “I want to produce the best report on this topic that’s ever been seen” – doesn’t hurt.
Some reflections on the above
There are, of course, other supremely useful attributes, e.g. leadership ability, diplomatic nous, negotiation skills, foreign languages, and sheer grit. They make individuals stand out in the crowd and open all kinds of doors. They are not absolutely essential however. You can have a satisfying and productive career without them.
If you are the type of person who has a yen for self-improvement (which, since you’re reading this blog post, I’m guessing you might) you can do a little exercise: rate yourself along the above attributes, say, on a scale of 1 to 5.
If you feel particularly deficient in one area, various strategies can be pursued. One is to diligently work on the areas you are weakest. That could entail reading, taking training, talking to people, as well as just being mindful. Another is to overcompensate, in a positive sense – aim to become brilliant and exceptional at one or maximum two things. A lot of senior experts, for example, may be bona fide curmudgeons, but they are valued — and tolerated! — because of their vast technical knowledge and experience.
Very few people will score top marks across all attributes. The good thing is it that no one is expected to, either. That’s why most work is done by teams, not individuals. Even a book with a single author is almost always a team effort. Just take a look at the acknowledgements section to remind yourself of this. It’s not a bad policy to be honest with people about what you can and cannot do.
A corollary of the above is that the stronger you are in one area, the more tolerance others will have for your weaknesses in other areas.
Keep in mind that these attributes are relative, depending on the circumstance and who else is in the room. On one project, for example, your 15 years may make you the most experienced person on the team, whereas on another, they may pale in comparison to your senior colleague’s 30 years.
Concluding thoughts
Every now and then I find myself working with someone who seems quite brilliant in all of the above attributes, and the question arises — is this person for real? Almost always, however, after getting to know them better, their weaknesses emerge and they turn out to be human after all… The weaknesses weren’t visible at first, or were not that irksome. That’s a skill too, of course, being able to conceal one’s faults.
It’s pretty difficult to be both human and perfect. And that’s okay. Not worth the effort, really. It’s good to remember that robots and AI come with plenty of built in flaws, glitches and annoyances, too (and that includes ridiculously macro-heavy MS Word and its I-know-better-than-you-what-formatting-should-be-used-here-but–maybe-I’ll-change-the-font-and-spacing-halfway-through-the-document attitude, pervasive flaws which Microsoft has not bothered to fix for over a decade).
Finally, possessing the seven attributes I’ve described here is not just good for sake of doing exemplary work. It will also make people want to collaborate with you again.
If you want to be popular, probably best not to go into evaluation. Pick another role, another profession.
However, evaluation performs a necessary and valuable function. Like street cleaning and colonoscopies, someone has to do it.
Evaluators are paid (tolerated?) to deliver sometimes unpleasant truths or hard-to-swallow advice. The role has evolved, slightly, since Medieval times when the king’s fool, among other things, had to speak truth to power, presumably in some palatable way like mixing humor and self-deprecation. Mercifully, we evaluators don’t need to dress up in funny costumes and makes fools of ourselves anymore (although sometimes we inadvertently do a bit of the latter).
In all honesty, the point of this blog post is not to deter would-be evaluators from entering the field. Rather, it is to warn you that you may not make as many friends as you would if you were, say, working in sales or marketing.
Also, when I say “unpopular” I do not mean that demand for evaluators is low. To the contrary, there is (still) lots of evaluation and evaluation-type work out there.
The fact is, auditors, tax collectors, inspectors, evaluators and their ilk – in what are sometimes called the accountability professions – are not really meant to be liked.
President Trump’s firing of six Inspectors General in the last few months notwithstanding, most people know that accountability is important. Like taking medicine or going to the gym, being evaluated or investigated can be disagreeable for the object of the evaluation, but there is also good chance it will make whatever or whoever is being evaluated better.
Why you need a thick skin
I have known of evaluators who have been threatened, fired, had their work trashed, or even been held against their will. Here are a couple of examples (one personal).
I once was leading an evaluation in Croatia on the impact of employee redundancies at the country’s shipyards. The data collection supervisor on our team, an intrepid young Croatian woman, was asked by a shipyard manager to turn over the list of (randomly selected) employees she was interviewing. When she refused, he locked her in the interview room and threatened not to let her out unless she complied with his request. She still refused, risking her safety and well-being in the name of professional integrity and respondent confidentiality. Luckily, she had a contact in the Ministry she was able to call, and the manager relented and unlocked the door. She was shaken, but able to continue with her interviews. The evaluation was completed and well received. The reforms, on the hand, did not happen.
It happens to evaluators – it has happened to me – that your findings and conclusions are rejected, even when I thought the analysis was strong.
Last year I conducted an evaluation-type study in an African country for the World Bank. It involved assessing the likely social impacts of a $100 million program. The manager who commissioned my work (in a division– referred to as “Global Practices” – at the Bank, with a focus on social issues) was happy with the analysis. However, the manager whose program I reviewed (from the Global Practice responsible for the assistance program) actually refused to speak with me. After reading my report and its conclusions, he rejected the analysis and brought in someone else to redo it. Not a happy experience, but you develop a thick skin in this line of work.
A popular way of rejecting evaluation findings is to question or attack the evaluation methods, or the evaluator’s qualifications. These are good ways of deflecting attention from the findings.
Often, you won’t know whether the client was unhappy with the quality or scope of the work, or if there were other internal politics at play.
These types of unpleasant experiences tend to be rarer, and less of an issue when the client commissioning the evaluation is not the one whose work is being evaluated. This may be the case with donors or US Government agencies such as USAID or Millennium Challenge Corporation evaluations. They are the agencies funding the work, while another organization implements it, so they are generally truly interested in whether the money is being well spent, e.g. is the program going according to plan and getting results.
You may not be popular, but you still have to be nice
With evaluators, when people are nice to you, it isn’t necessarily because they like you, or see you as a linchpin in their career progression. Of course, hopefully you’re a decent person with a disarming personality! But quite possibly, their chumminess could reflect a, shall we say, slight bias. You are evaluating their programs after all, and they most likely prefer it that you see them at their very best. If people are quite nice to you at the beginning, but when they realize that you’re serious about your job, they start cooling to you, you’ll know that the amicability was more of a tactic than anything else.
It is your job to look past the surface, dig into the data, find what what’s really happening, and report fairly. Yet, you yourself need to adopt an attitude of goodwill, and cordiality toward others, regardless of what your finding are, no matter how useless your inept or corrupt the program is. (I honestly have evaluated very few programs that fall into that category, quite possibly because everyone knows that the evaluators will be showing up.)
Why is being nice to others who might not be nice to you important?
First, being nice is simply part of being professional.
Second, you want to build relationships. You need others trust you and share information and, if all goes well, accept your findings.
Third, maintaining a pleasant demeanor is a simply good default attitude to have to contain whatever feelings you may have about the program you’re evaluating. Whether you think it is amazing or terrible, you want to keep those feelings separate from the work.
The bottom line is that being decent to others is a soft skill you want in your toolbox.
The evaluator as outsider
Closely linked to being “unpopular” is being an outsider.
Professional independent evaluators are, by dint of their position, outsiders. (This is different from internal evaluators who work within an organization.) You need to accept and embrace that role, even while building trust with the client and stakeholders you meet. You need to obtain information from them, and want them to accept your findings.
However, it is a fine line. As an evaluator, you arrive in a new place, with its own professional or work culture, maybe in a new country. You start poking around, and asking questions. That’s the job. People will be on their guard.
The outsider status is beneficial in that it can shield you from certain biases that you might bring. These biases might include if you were part of the system you are evaluating, such as belonging to one or the other political parties, ethnic groups, clans or other groupings of which you are probably not aware.
A corollary of this is that foreign governments often value non-nationals because they are outsiders, independent, not connected to a particular faction. Sometimes this is justified, sometimes not. Despite being an outsider, and thus often partially aware (or unaware) of the unwritten and unspoken codes and connections, there is value in standing outside, in not being part of the culture.
One can be less beholden, less biased, and face lower risk of consequences from producing unpopular findings, since everyone knows that when it’s over the evaluator will board the plane and leave the country.
The international consultant, very much an outsider position, also brings an international perspective to the table, based on evaluation experience in multiple countries and cultures.
The evaluator as friend?
I like the concept of critical friend, which I have found very useful in understanding and accepting my role as an evaluator. It implies that you are there to help through constructive criticism. One of the best descriptions comes from John MacBeath, a Cambridge University academic, in a 1998 article on improving school effectiveness:
The Critical Friend is a powerful idea, perhaps because it contains an inherent tension. Friends bring a high degree of unconditional positive regard. Critics are, at first sight at least, conditional, negative and intolerant of failure. Perhaps the critical friend comes closest to what might be regarded as ‘true friendship’ – a successful marrying of unconditional support and unconditional critique.
Good evaluators should be respected for their work. They are not going to be the most popular kid on the block and should not strive for that.
Sometimes evaluation findings are accepted, sometimes rejected, sometimes ignored. Sometimes you are hired again, sometimes you are not. As an independent consultant moving from one assignment to the next, one client to the next, you often never learn of the outcome of your work. It comes with the territory and you should not be disheartened by this.
I began this post by noting how evaluation is not a popular profession. In this age of online calumny and fake news, where many suspect any criticism of being driven by ulterior motives, the notion of accountability is more important than ever.
Nonetheless, if you stick to your guns, maintain your integrity and deliver credible and useful advice, you may be the best critical friend, the people who hired you have ever had.
Today we’ll look at when and how to share a piece of professional writing, specifically when it comes to producing notes or reports for international development work.
Three core elements of writing
Let me propose that writing is made up of three core elements: content, style, and management.
Content is what the writing is about, the rough material, the substance to be molded into shape, like turning a lump of clay into a sculpture. A near infinite number of topics are out there, waiting to be written about. The biggest hurdle may be deciding on which one to focus on. Think of content as the what.
Style is the form, the shape and design that the content assumes. Editing and revising for grammar, punctuation, clarity, structure; all those key style elements that Strunk and White, George Orwell and others address. The style must also be appropriate for the type of report and organization for which it is being written. Prose fiction, journalism, doctoral theses and UN reports are different animals. Each has its own logic and purpose and appropriate style. Think of style as the how.
Management is the process of producing the writing, the steps along the way, from concept to outline to draft to revisions to sharing for comment. As dull and prosaic (no pun intended) as this third element may sound, it matters quite a bit. You may have plenty of ideas in your head, and an inimitable writing style. However, if you don’t manage to write them down and prepare them for readers, it won’t matter. Think of management as the when, how much, where, to whom, etc. That is, anything that goes beyond content and style.
On a side note – if you don’t have at least basic competence in all three of the above, you will probably struggle. However, if you are part of a team responsible for the report, you can rely on each other. To a certain extent, team members can compensate for each other’s weaknesses.
Managing the written word
Perhaps for good reason, the third element, management, is the most neglected. What writer wants to think about managing their writing process? We are not all brilliant wordsmiths, such as the late Christopher Hitchens, who, astoundingly, could sit down and produce a polished, piece in just 20 minutes.
Most of us need to plan, and work rather laboriously toward the finished product. It’s not always pretty. Like any process, writing can be managed well or managed poorly, but it must be managed.
One way of improving writing is, of course, by exploiting the feedback of others. That becomes a little tricky when the feedback is from the manager, editor, or client who has commissioned you to do the work, however.
As you knit your brow and sigh over your unfinished report, questions you may ask yourself include:
You know your draft still needs work. Should you share it or continue revising it, even if it means delaying delivery?
How much detail should you include? Is it better to produce too much and pare it back, based on feedback? Or is it better to “park” extra material in reserve, and add it later, when you get the inevitable request to expand on this or that point?
Is it okay to leave in weak parts if you point out that you are aware of them and will continue to improve them?
Share now or share later?
You want to avoid sharing a draft that is too weak, since it could cause the reviewers to question your writing or analytical abilities, or commitment to quality.However, perhaps the draft is due in a few days, and you know it will not be ready. Should you deliver it on time, because that’s what was agreed, or ask for an extension? Generally, choose the latter: better to deliver late but good, than on time but poor.
However, if you do ask for an extension, let the person you report to, who will be reviewing the piece, know in advance. They may well be flexible, especially when it comes to internal deadlines.
If most sections are in good shape, but one section needs a lot of work, send the document with a note that section X needs a bit more time. Similarly, in those parts of your report where you know more information or analysis is needed, note that directly in the document, as a heads up. Better to deliver good writing that is incomplete — than weak writing that is complete.
If you have written good material but it exceeds the page limit you’ve been given, either hold it back or create an annex. The annex is your Joker card, where you can put surplus (but hopefully good) writing, and save it from oblivion.
Internal deadlines are your friends. Deadlines are often not hard, and delivering a few days, or even a week late might not make a difference. The writing process is managed by setting a series of intermediate milestones that need to be met. This is not college, where you can cram all night and deliver your paper before class in the morning.
Keep people in the loop on your progress. Share outlines, concepts, or smaller sections of the report in advance, to show that the work is progressing, and to get feedback. Or, have a few meetings or calls to keep the people who will be reviewing updated. This process is similar to how companies release “beta” versions of software programs, piloting them in the real world before upgrading them to the final release version. There is a clear advantage to sharing a work in progress, as opposed to a work you feel is close to complete. Others will see things that you don’t, making the revision process more efficient.
Unless you have an open-ended or a very long timeline, and almost no other obligations, remember that perfection is not the goal. If you are a consultant, you have been given a fixed budget or finite number of days. You need to produce competent, high quality, relevant work. That is what is asked and expected of you. Of course, you can always do more and better. But the best way to get there is through repeated practice, not fixating on this one piece.
Some reviewers will be more forgiving than others. Some focus on strengths, others on weaknesses. Your work will benefit from both. However, you will know which ones you can trust to provide constructive feedback on preliminary efforts. Reviewers are your allies. Use them.
There are no strict rules, but the better you are at managing how and when you share your work, the less stressful it will be, and the more pride you can take in the result.
Much of what consultants do, at least those of us working in international development, involves synthesizing boatloads of information. I’m going to go further, and argue that it is a core competency. If you are unable to effectively absorb, process and synthesize large quantities of information on a given topic, in a way that is useful, you will struggle. Moreover, often you will have much less time than you need or want for the task, so you need to find an efficient way of getting it done.
In my early days as a consultant, fresh out of grad school, I found writing analytical reports a laborious, even painful, process. I wasted a lot of time. I didn’t really know how to go about it. I had to research and write about issues and countries I initially knew little about — such as rural finance in Ukraine, agriculture in Azerbaijan, or community-driven development in Kyrgyzstan.
I would say that my graduate school courses and research papers gave me a decent underpinning in this area, but I still struggled with what to write and how to write it. I somehow pulled off these assignments, but I’ll be the first to admit the process was inefficient and ineffective. I lost many nights and weekends, and when I wasn’t actually writing, it was never far from my mind. If I were to add up the hours, I probably earned well below the minimum wage on those contracts.
It has gotten easier over time, although writing concise and clear and analytically robust reports remains the most challenging aspect of my work. This blog post is therefore designed to help readers who face similar issues to synthesize more effectively, and hopefully lower their stress levels.
Not quite the same as whisky…
Synthesizing large quantities of information is a competence every international development consultant should have in his or her toolbox. It’s a skill you need. Why? Because a significant amount of the work involves summarizing academic literature, gray literature, data, news reports, meeting notes, and any other source that is relevant and credible. What is the final output? In the international development field, examples include the following: policy notes, issue notes, reports on lessons learned, case studies, chapters in a report, and so on.
Usually this is the moment for coming up with a good metaphor for the topic, which I’m going to dispense with right now: synthesizing information is not like distilling a good whisky. With whisky, you have a limited number of elements – fermented grain mash, oak casks, and time. I’m not saying whisky-making doesn’t require a lot of skill. But you can focus on a relatively narrow number of things to get it right. By contrast, the number and type of inputs that go into a typical analytical report are vast and varied, and may change with every assignment.
Researching, reviewing, and writing
Synthesizing a body of knowledge can be broken down into
three main activities:
Research: First, you need to find the relevant information and analysis. Some of it is in written form; much, but not all (books, for example) is publicly available online; and some of it is only found inside of the minds of colleagues, stakeholders, experts, etc. whom you should try to meet with or interview.
Review: You need to review the material you’ve collected. That does not mean reading every word, however. If you try that approach you will never finish, at least not in the weeks or months you’ve been given. (I’ll get to tackling this little problem later.)
Write: The written output needs to capture the essence of your topic and its various sub-topics and sub-sub-topics. Your synthesis of the material, the content, needs to be accurate, clearly written, and have a sound structure. Introductory and context sections need to include the most important and basic information. The level of detail should be appropriate — not too much, not too little. Make Goldilocks happy. And always keep your audience in mind.
Let’s assume you have been given the topic you have to write
about, you know what and who it is for, and how long the report needs to be. So
far, so good.
It’s good to tap into any skills you have lying around because the synthesizing process can be intense and challenging. (If you are an academic, a non-fiction writer, or a journalist, you already have a leg up.) If you are writing about a topic in which you are an expert, you are also in a good position. If you are methodical and well-organized, that’s helpful, too. If you are brilliant, have amazing retention skills and the writing just flows out of you, like Mozart composing new pieces, that is, well, fantastic. (You’re also probably not working as a consultant…or reading this article.)
Under pressure and within limits
The challenging part of the distillation process is when you come face to face with the constraints you work under. For example, you almost never have as much time as you would like. Consultants usually have contracts for a fixed number of days. Whether it is 10 or 50, that number is still a scarce resource that you need to manage well.
Some of your contract days may be needed for travel, for meetings, or for other activities. In other words, you don’t have the luxury of immersing yourself in your topic for months or years on end. You might only realize how tight your timeline is when the work is well underway, as in, “Whoa, I just realized I only have five days left to finish this!”
If you are on staff at an organization, your constraints may be more relaxed. (This applies especially to academia.) Researchers have years to conduct and write up their work. Since staff are paid a salary, they generally don’t have to worry about running out of work days, even if they do have to meet deadlines.
Some things to try…
So much for the challenges. Now here are some things I have found helpful:
Be clear on what you are writing. Yes, you know the topic. But that’s not the same as knowing what you are writing. You don’t want to submit a draft to a client for review, only to have them say that’s not what they were expecting. Even if the topics and sub-topics are clear from your terms of reference, there is always a risk that you will focus too much on one aspect instead of another. Another issue might be that your report is considered too descriptive and not policy-oriented enough.
Start with an outline. Organize the material in a coherent logical outline. Get the client or team members to review it and provide input at this early stage. You can adjust it as you go along. But this outline is going to be the timber frame around which you will build your house.
Review material strategically and methodically. First, I like to read the table of contents, executive summary, introduction, and conclusions. I follow this with a quick scan of the entire document. I zero in on any relevant chapters and sub-topics and read them more in-depth. If it is an electronic document, I’ll “cheat” and do a key word search. I like to extract excerpts (using copy-paste function) and save them in a separate document, being sure to include the source citation. I may pull out citations to use in my report later.
Avoid working alone if you can. It is much more effective to collaborate on reports with colleagues. There will be more brainpower directed at the subject and different perspectives will be brought to bear. The back-and-forth flow of ideas is often stimulating, I find. It’s also a way of dividing and conquering, lessening the burden that one person would otherwise have to carry. Assign tasks to team members based on each person’s strengths; one may be a better writer, another a more thorough organizer of data; one may be a big-picture thinker, another will be good at details.
Break the process down into small and manageable tasks. An issue can seem overwhelming at first, because there are so many different aspects to it. It can help to take on one subtopic at a time, and temporarily ignore the others. Allot a half a day, a day, two days — however much time seems appropriate — to just that section or chapter. I like to open up a clean, new Word document for the purpose, and when I’m done, paste that separately created section into the main body.
Finally, one of the secrets to successful writing is knowing when to stop. You need to stop when the writing is good enough; not perfect, but good enough. You can keep revising a piece until the cows come home. You shouldn’t. Other work, other tasks, other things in life need your attention. Like that whisky — a perfect example of the distillation process bearing fruit.
(Revised May 8, 2020, and September 11, 2020, for clarity)
First of all, negotiating is about more than getting as much
as you can. It isn’t really even about getting what (you think) you’re worth.
Many factors come into play and it is worth spending a little time thinking
them through. After you’ve signed the contract, assuming your negotiations land
you at that point, you want to feel good about what you’ve agreed to.
When it comes to work, money isn’t everything. It’s one element among many that gives satisfaction. Why else would people volunteer, or work for low pay at organizations they believe in? In other words, when you are negotiating, the dollar amount (or whatever currency you’re getting paid in) is not the only thing you should be thinking about.
In this blog post I am going to suggest 12 things to consider when negotiating your rate. The goal is to help you be more conscious of what exactly you are negotiating about, as well as more strategic.
This post is longer than normal, so if you don’t have the time or inclination to read on, here are the main messages: Know thyself. Think about what the number (your daily rate) means. Decide what matters to you.
The scenario
To make it more realistic, let’s build the discussion around
a typical scenario.
I’m going to posit that you are a consultant working in
international development, although some of what follows applies more broadly.
The basis of your remuneration is your daily rate, because
you undertake short-term assignments, rather than full-time, salaried work. The
daily rate and number of contract days are normally the basis of short-term
contracts in this field.
You have entered into discussions with an organization over a short-term assignment. Let’s call them Acme & Partners International. They are a consulting firm based in Arlington, VA and they submit proposals to organizations like the World Bank, the UN, and USAID, and they subcontract consultants like you.
They found your profile on Devex.com or assortis.com, they’ve checked out your references and contacted you. You’ve had a few exchanges. It turns out that, yes, you are available and there is mutual interest in having you on the project. Your role and responsibilities have been defined. You’re expected to spend part of your time working from home and part of your time onsite, i.e. overseas. So far so good.
Because you haven’t worked for Acme before, you need to
agree on remuneration. The subject might come up as part of their initial
inquiry as to your qualifications, interest, and/or availability, or it might
come up later.
Like most organizations, Acme has a standard range —
and upper limit — for the daily rate they are willing to offer their
subcontractors, i.e. independent consultants like you. It will be based on some
combination of their fee structure or guidelines, what they pay similar
consultants, and the demand for your services.
Now that we’ve got the preliminaries out of the way, what
factors should you take into consideration when negotiating your rate?
1. Any previous assignments may be used as reference points
If you have previous consulting work experience, you will
probably have received different fees, and thus established a range. For the
rest of the discussion, we’ll think in terms of your range. That range can be
wide or narrow.
If you are new to the field of consulting and have not yet
had an assignment based on your daily rate, ask around for advice. Ideally, ask
another consultant. If you’ve been employed full-time somewhere, do not
divide your salary by 250 (the approximate number of working days in a year) to
arrive at your rate. Why? You will
arrive at a figure which is too low, because the full-time nature of salaried
work, the benefits, and the overhead covered by the employer, do not generally
apply to independent consulting work.
Especially as a beginning consultant, you will probably not
be working a full 250 days. It took me about three years working as a
consultant before I was able to corral enough assignments to keep me more or
less busy year-round. And, as noted, you need to take into account the fact
that you will not be getting benefits — health insurance, vacation, sick
days, etc. —
with this rate.
Also, bear in mind your personal overhead —
i.e. the time you spend on activities associated with your work for which you
cannot bill a client. These activities include things like updating your CV, applying
for assignments or responding to inquiries, planning and organizing your
schedule, managing your taxes and accounts, developing your technical capacity,
maintaining or building up your professional network, etc.
Unless you’re a superstar in your field or your skills are
hard to find, you will not be able to unilaterally declare your rate. The vast
majority of us live and function in a world of constraints. That requires self-knowledge
and intelligent negotiating.
Ideally, the rate you eventually agree on with Acme will be
toward the upper end of your own range. However, there are a number of reasons
you may accept a rate that is toward the low end of your range, or even below
it. Read on.
2. How much do I want or need this assignment?
Have you been trying to get work with Acme (or the UN or the
World Bank) for a long time, and this seems like your chance? Have you always
wanted to go to South Africa, and this is your opportunity? Have you been
trying to get experience on refugee issues?
The more attractive the assignment is, the more willing you
may be to agree to a rate that is toward the bottom of your range. On the other
hand, if you’re feeling lukewarm about the assignment, think about how much
they’d have to pay you (and under what conditions) for you to say “yes.” In
other words, anything below that — you’d be willing to walk away, no
regrets.
3. Are there any opportunity costs?
What if you accept this three-month assignment —
which perhaps you’re sort of interested in, since you need the money, but you’re
not enthused by — and then, a month from now a much better one comes along?
It might pay better, or it might be more aligned with your skills or goals, or
it might just be more interesting. Will you have to forgo the better
opportunity because you’ve committed to Acme already? If yes, then that’s your opportunity cost.
The higher your opportunity cost (i.e. the chances of
missing out on something better) the less willing you should be to accept a
lower rate. Of course, you may be able to say yes to both, and fit them both into
your schedule.
I tend to have multiple assignments going on at once.
Juggling is part of the deal. Here’s a bonus trade secret —
it is very common for projects to start later than planned. If the whole
discussion so far has been about starting the work on September 1, don’t be
surprised if it actually starts in October.
4. Will this assignment lead to other opportunities?
Some organizations are difficult to break into. Maybe this
Acme contract is with USAID, whom you’ve always wanted to work for — either
directly or indirectly. USAID, like other organizations, likes it when
consultants have previous USAID experience.
If you think this will indeed open up other doors, then you
may not feel like negotiating too hard. But be a bit careful here —
see Consideration #5.
5. Will this rate determine my rate for all future work with this company or organization?
The answer to that is usually yes. You won’t lock yourself
in, but future increases will be based on this first contract. We can call this
“salary path dependency.” If you start too low, you potentially are giving up a
lot of income down the line. It’s true that $20 per day may not seem like a
substantial amount on a 50-day contract. However, if you end up working off and
on for Acme over the next 10 years, for an average of 50 days per year, that’s
500 days, i.e. equivalent to $10,000.
A low daily rate at Acme won’t necessarily depress your
ability to get a better daily rate elsewhere. Most organizations won’t
generally ask you about your previous rates but some might. (USAID is the
exception, requiring the so-called bio-data form which asks you to list your
salary or rate for the past three years — but note that in some states asking
about previous salaries is now illegal.)
However, a good daily rate can be used as leverage in
negotiations with other organizations.
6. Are there other benefits?
Maybe the daily rate is only part of a package. For example,
the Asian Development Bank typically includes a fairly generous lump sum per
diem amount for every day of onsite work in its contracts. The per diem
includes both accommodation and ‘meals and incidentals’ (most organizations
provide a per diem only for meals and incidentals), so it can be substantial.
If you don’t splurge by staying at a luxury hotel and eating at fancy
restaurants, you can come out ahead. This might lead you to accept a lower
rate.
Another benefit might be that this particular assignment
includes a lot of flexibility — in terms of when and where and how
the work is done. If that is important to you, factor that into your
thinking.
7. Are there any creative solutions lying around?
Sometimes managers may be happy to pay you more, but they
have to work within their organization’s fee structure, which maybe doesn’t
align with your range. The budget is there, and both the manager and you want
to move forward.
In such a case, sometimes more days can be added to your
contract, effectively increasing the total amount while not exceeding fee
guidelines. The outcome might be that, instead of the initially mooted 20-day
contract you get a 25-day contract.
Another option is to enter into a lump sum contract, with no reference to any daily rate at all. A lump sum contract refers only to a total amount, and does not break out expenses for travel, accommodation or other items, which you must cover out of the total sum. You are not required to submit receipts. With a lump sum contract you can avoid being constrained by a low daily rate, and work the number of days that is appropriate to the total contract amount, taking into account expenses. Lump sum contracts are not very common, however, in the international development field.
8. Do I have to pay taxes?
Because Acme is a private company, the answer is yes.
However, at some organizations, such as the IMF and World Bank, international
hires do not pay taxes, only U.S. citizens do. That means U.S. citizens need to
try and ensure their daily rates are about 25-30% above what their fellow
international consultant rates are.
If you are a U.S. citizen and are earning the same amount as
an international hire, you are effectively paying a tax penalty, because, come
next April, you will owe a cut of your income to Uncle Sam, while they will
not. In theory, this would put U.S. consultants at a competitive disadvantage.
However, as a rule, I have not found this to be the case. Hiring managers tend
to have budgets that are elastic enough to enable them to focus on
qualifications.
9. Do I want to help this organization out?
Let’s say you really like Acme and the work they are doing, because they’re a small outfit, doing incredibly meaningful work to help _______ [fill in the blank with your favorite cause]. Maybe they simply don’t have very much budget for the work they’re asking you to do.
In this case, you may be happy to charge them less than your
normal rate or range. That’s absolutely fine. However, I suggest stating up
front that you are giving them a ‘discount’, so that this doesn’t set a
precedent. Thus, if you normally would be asking for x, then charge them 50% of
that. That way, your standard daily rate has not gone down, you have simply
given this particular organization a one-time rebate.
There are some assistance programs that rely on pro-bono
work. They recruit highly skilled senior specialists in a particular field to
work pro bono, i.e. for no fee at all. These might be, for example,
contract lawyers, horticulture specialists or infectious disease specialists
whose day job is academia or at a government agency. The program only pays for
their travel and expenses.
I’ve even heard that work done pro bono can exceed
the quality of paid consultants. The money motivation is just not there;
they’re doing it because they enjoy solving problems, engaging with
counterparts abroad, and making a difference.
10. Is the marginal difference important to me?
It could be that the marginal difference of a higher rate
isn’t meaningful to you. Maybe you don’t even need the extra income.
For example, you’re approaching the end of your career and
the extra income that a 10% higher rate would bring just doesn’t make a
difference. Or maybe you have reached your annual income target, if you have
one. This also highlights the fact that at different phases in your career
different considerations come into play.
Likewise, the pro bono assignments described above
may be more accepted by professionals who have the income or accrued assets to
the extent that they are willing to work (occasionally) for free.
11. Should I always negotiate?
Yes (while bearing in mind the previous considerations).
12. Won’t negotiating make me seem difficult, or greedy?
No, it won’t. Negotiating, if conducted in a reasonable way,
is considered normal and is expected. It may also be as simple as a few emails exchanging
offers and counter-offers.
Keep the tone pleasant, be reasonable and make a good argument. The organization may or may not be able to meet your request, but they won’t hold it against you that you asked for more. There is a side-benefit to the negotiation process: the back and forth over daily rates and other aspects of the contract gives both you and Acme a chance to get to know one another better before making a commitment. And that’s always a good thing.
I recently had the pleasure of being a guest speaker at the International Relations Career Challenge (IRCC), a week-long intensive program aimed at young professionals aspiring to get into the field of international development. It is a terrific professional development opportunity run by Young Professionals United Nations (YPUN), an organization helping young professionals build their international relations careers.
I spoke on the subject of independent consulting in the international development sector, a seemingly daunting path that generated plenty of questions from participants. Some focused on whether it is a path worth pursuing, how to get started, and what are the risks involved.
Let’s get this out of the way first – independent consulting is not for everyone, and I’ve written elsewhere about the downsides. It can be risky the first few years, when there is lots of uncertainty about finding enough assignments to earn a living with. However, it can be an attractive option for those who don’t enjoy 9-to-5 office life, have a set of marketable skills and the motivation to pursue a more independent path.
In this post, I’m going go over in more detail just one of the topics I touched on at IRCC: six ways of finding finding assignments. Three are active and three are passive.
Active methods
Responding to job announcements. The conventional way of getting most work, whether full time or consulting assignments, is applying for advertised assignments. You scan the relevant sites for job announcements and apply to the ones that look attractive and for which you feel qualified. For example, Devex.com lists short-term assignments, as do others, such as Indeed.com and Developmentaid.org.
Reaching out to your personal and professional network. It is a good idea to reach out to friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to ask if they can introduce you to people working in your sector. Once you make a connection, arrange an informational interview, thereby getting to know an organization or company better, and putting yourself on their radar.
Cold calls. Today’s version of “cold calling” simply means contacting professionals in your field without any third-party introduction. This could be through email, Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, organizational websites, or publications. If you are working within an organization, permanently or temporarily, you can simply send the appropriate person an email or, better yet, just knock on their door.
Passive methods
Seeding the Internet with your profile/CV. This is important in terms of making your profile, and availability known. You can post your CV on a number of jobs websites such as Devex, LinkedIn, and organization websites. You can also upload your CV to the websites of consulting firms that work in the sector. You can find a lot (though not all) of firms working on US government contracts at these websites:
Small Business Association for International Companies: sbaic.org/about
Socializing in the real world. Now
this is the easy and fun part. It involves randomly getting to know people during
the course of your workday, at events, workshops, seminars, conferences, embassy
soirees, cocktail parties, dinner parties, bar-b-ques and so on. You get the
picture. Face-to-face contact is hugely important (see knocking on doors,
above). It gives people a sense of your character, which can build trust, or at
least a willingness to risk hiring you. If someone gets a good impression of you, that
will separate you from the pile of nameless, faceless CVs. I don’t claim to
understand why, exactly, being in the same room with someone and being able to
look them in the eyes is so important. Ostensibly all the important information
about your experience and expertise is detailed on your CV. But that’s how the
world works.
Through referrals. The
final passive method is something that will take care of itself as you
accumulate work experience. Do a good job, prove yourself to be competent and
reliable, and managers you’ve worked with will recommend you – to colleagues or
others in the sector – for other opportunities. They may change organizations
and then come back to you for more, and voila! you have a new client.
The passive approach isn’t completely passive, of course. Some
minimal activity is still required on your part. However, two of the passive
methods involve a limited amount of up-front work, maybe a couple of days’
worth, after which they go on autopilot while you focus on other things. The socializing “method” involves you getting
out of the house and mingling with the rest of the world. It shouldn’t really
involve job searching or any sort of stress. Going to parties, events,
workshops and seminars is merely about you being in circulation and keeping up
with what’s going on. Then let serendipity do the rest.
What method works best?
If this were one of those so-called sensationalist click-baiting websites, I would have titled this post something like “6 Common Ways to find Consulting Jobs: You’ll Be Shocked that #5 works best,” or “Why You Should Go to Parties to Find your Dream Job.” Sorry, I just don’t have the stomach for it. And you’ll notice from the lack of ads that I don’t depend on this blog site for income.
However, passivity and partying are, in fact, very good
approaches. Similar to investing in the stock market, in the medium to
long-run, passive investing for your job search beats active investing by
far.
Early in your career or job search, you
can afford to invest your time in the active strategies. The opportunity cost
is low. That is, you don’t have many alternative ways of spending your time. However,
the more experience you have, and the broader your network, the more important
your passive approach to getting work will become. In any case, if all goes
well, you will be too busy to apply for work.
After a couple of years in the field, passive methods will dominate
In my first couple of years as a consultant I tried all six methods. And all, except the first, have paid off. All I got for my application efforts were a few interviews, during which I clearly didn’t, ahem, shine. They did not lead to work. Luckily the other methods have worked fairly well. And over the past 15 years or so, fully 100 percent of my assignments come from passive methods. That means I can devote most of my energy to the work I have and not looking for the work I don’t have.
And yes, for those who are curious, my stock market investment strategy is also passive…
In many fields, starting out can be daunting. This goes not
only for those who have graduated from university but for more seasoned
professionals interested in switching careers.
How do you step onto that first rung of the ladder in the
field of international development? Even though unemployment has hit historic
lows, and jobs are seemingly plentiful, you don’t want to get onto just any old
ladder that’s leaning against a wall — you want to get onto a ladder that
will get you over the right wall.
What are the barriers to entry and how can you overcome them?
In this post, I’ll take a look at four barriers to launching a career in
international development – experience, knowledge, confidence and name
recognition – and some things you can do to lower them.
The experience barrier
The experience barrier can be a maddening catch-22.
Employers want you to have experience, but how do you gain experience if you
haven’t been employed yet? For junior professionals, the experience issue isn’t
about the problem-solving skills. It is about whether you’ve done something
similar before — even just once — and whether you can deliver the
goods.
Through time, this barrier will fade as you build up a body of work. Meanwhile, you need to find creative ways to compensate for your (temporarily) limited experience. If you don’t have professional experience, you may have country experience or language skills from living or studying overseas. Other things that compensate for lack of experience could be your interest in, and commitment to, working in the international development field. Or, better yet, your interest (some call it passion) in a particular issue, whatever it is that keeps you up at night.
A good way of getting experience is to take field
assignments, even volunteer ones. You go to live and work in a country for a
period of time, test your mettle, and gain a better sense of how the real world
works. This is a great way of gaining a perch on the career ladder, while also
learning a new language, and accumulating some marketable practical skills
along the way. I recall a friend saying
that even minimal overseas experience helps.
Her international recruiter explained it this way: “Look, we just want
to make sure that when you get off the plane you don’t freak out and turn
around and come right back. This, unfortunately, has happened more times than
we care to admit.”
Being well-spoken, personable, and reliable, possessing good
analytical and writing skills are always good attributes to have. You can
demonstrate all these things in person and by sharing examples of written work.
And while having 20-30 years of experience in one area is highly valued and
opens doors, it is, of course, only expected of very senior professionals. For
junior professionals, having successfully performed a project once signals to
prospective hiring managers or clients that you can be trusted to do it again.
There is running a joke at the World Bank, where staff shift between projects
and countries at a pretty high frequency, that if you done something once, you
can be considered an expert.
The knowledge barrier
If you are a recent graduate, the knowledge you draw on will
be mostly theoretical. And much of it may turn out to be only marginally applicable
to the work you end up doing.
In the consulting field, technical knowledge relating to a
field or a method is what is most valued. Some examples are: rural water supply
systems, climate change mitigation, social behavior change, natural resource
management, data analytics, governance, and evaluation methodologies.
To build up an area of knowledge, it is advisable not to spread
yourself too thinly. Find a niche that interests you, and focus on building up your
expertise there. After a while, you may find that the niche area that you chose
has a lot of transfer potential, and you can apply it to other sectors. Teach
yourself about the economics of forestry. Learn a statistical software program.
Follow blogs and podcasts that cover a specific issue. All of that will make you more marketable. In
the meantime, you’re keeping your synapses active.
The confidence barrier
Not having worked in the field yet, and not (yet) having a wide
network of experienced friends and colleagues, may make you feel you are at a
disadvantage. It may sap your confidence. How can you compete with the
professionals you meet? My advice is to be bold. Suppress those misgivings.
Hide your nervousness, wear a confident smile. Most people won’t notice your
nerves. Remember that all these senior professionals also started out with zero
experience at some point.
I know of a young woman who was desperate to get her foot in
the door of New York’s high-stakes fashion industry. Freshly graduated, she cold called a
name-brand designer and was told there were no jobs. “Nevertheless,” as they say, “she persisted.” By the end of the call, she had wrangled an
internship, based on her years as a summer camp counselor, where, she assured
them, there was no crisis she couldn’t handle.
And if you are young, remember that you come with distinct advantages.
You probably possess some measure of energy, enthusiasm, resilience,
intellectual curiosity, and analytical prowess that many of us older folks wish
we still had! You also bring tech and social media savvy that you may take for
granted, but that may be valued by your employers.
The name recognition barrier
By virtue of being new to the field, you are unknown. You don’t have “name recognition” as they like to say in politics, because no one knows you. Bizarrely enough, we seem to live in an age where name recognition trumps competence, ideas, and even previously unacceptable behavior when it comes to politicians getting elected. The lesson for you, however, is not to see how much you can get away with and still get hired — the lesson is that name recognition is really, really important.
It is completely normal and understandable that people don’t
know who you are. You don’t have a big network yet, or a reputation. Maybe it’s
going too far to say that this is an existential barrier, but before they can
consider hiring you, people simply need to know that you exist…
That means finding as many opportunities as you can handle
to meet people and get your CV out there in the public domain where
organizations and people can find it. Devex, Developmentaid.org, Assortis.org, are
some of the bigger sites in the development field (and LinkedIn works, too) where
you can post your CV and profile and where employers can find you. In addition,
many consulting firms invite people to upload their profile and CV, which they
can then use to identify potential staff or specialists.
While you’re doing this online, nothing can replace
face-to-face networking – through job fairs, think tank events, conferences,
meet-ups and yes, happy hours and parties. I’ve gotten work simply because I
shared an office with someone, or was introduced to them at a bar-b-que.
Conclusion – Natural barriers
We can consider the four above-mentioned obstacles as “natural barriers.” They are part of the landscape. Everyone has faced them, and almost everyone who is working in their profession has overcome them (and gone on to face other obstacles in their career — but that’s another story).
The barriers I’ve described above are actually pretty straightforward, and there are established (and creative) methods for getting over and around them. Learn to enjoy the challenge. Don’t give up at the first rejection. Be resilient. (What you want to avoid doing is creating unnecessary barriers that you have inadvertently created yourself. More on those in a follow-up post.)
You may need to meet or get in touch with 25 people – remember,
name recognition! – before one comes back to you and says, “I’d like to talk to
you about a project…”
Talking serves, among other things, a revelatory purpose. Through
talking (or communicating in some form) people reveal useful information, about
where they stand, their concerns, their values, etc. There is the subject at
hand, of course (e.g. the threat of artificial intelligence (AI) to human employment;
there is the attitude toward that subject (AI is going to be a huge risk); and
there is the way they express themselves, or the oratorical tone (distanced,
passionate, sardonic, etc.).
I’m willing to bet that, all things being equal, the longer
people talk, the more they reveal. And what they reveal comes not only through
words, but also through their body language, signals, etc. some of which maybe
intentional and some not.
In a previous
post, I wrote about how dialogue between stakeholders was such an
important, and yet not overly complicated, solution to many problems — particularly
those involving people or groups with different interests. The post touched on
several reasons why talking things out is so conducive to resolving issues. I urged readers to always consider it as a
potential solution.
The Los Angeles Times, in an article about how the recent horrific Sri Lanka Easter Sunday bombings were enabled by poor communication argued that “Free press and open communication foster debate and combat falsehoods and prejudices, between and within the various groups.”
The many things that talking is good for
To explore the phenomenon a bit further, talking with other people, like some of the most popular things in this world, serves multiple purposes. (Think of the multi-functionality of the smartphone, and before that, the Swiss Army knife, not to mention the mouth or, heck, the human being. I could go on.)
Talking allows you to inform — or misinform, if that is your goal — to explain, to learn, to exchange information, to persuade, to clarify a position, to explore areas of common interest, to negotiate, to connect and build a relationship, even to empower the other side. As to this last example, think of a regime which, after months of anti-regime protests, agrees to meet and talk with the protesters. This significantly enhances the protesters’ credibility. To go back to the assertion I opened with, talking is crucial for reducing uncertainty and doubt by putting more information out there.
The beauty of the live
experience
Unlike one-way or back and forth sporadic communication, with gaps in between, talking face-to-face (or via the various videoconferencing technologies) allows you to gauge the reaction of the person you are communicating with, and to modulate your message “in real time,” so to speak. That way, you can ensure your fellow interlocutor understood you correctly, and, if not, you can immediately modify impressions or correct misunderstandings.
Miscommunication –
communication’s evil twin
Poor communication — especially when it is absent, or only
one-way —
results in one or the other parties resorting to filling in the gaps with their
own imagination or assumptions. Even just small gaps in communication can
create uncertainty. If you’ve ever sent an email (or text) and not received an
answer, you’ll know what I mean. Did the other person not get it? Are they too
busy? Do they prefer to communicate through a different platform? Is it a low priority for them? Are they
oblivious? You don’t really know, and so you end up trying to figure out what
the lack of response means.
An interesting example of many people not communicating is the
United Kingdom’s so far unsuccessful attempt to leave the EU —
an event now postponed until the end of October 2019. It is not a stretch to
say that the latest twists and turns in this ongoing Brexit saga —
with the UK trying to extricate itself from the deep economic and regulatory
embrace of the EU — are very much about communication, and its evil twin,
miscommunication. After over two years of unsuccessfully trying to formulate a
plan for leaving the EU that also commands enough votes in Parliament, British
Prime Minister Theresa May finally decided to talk to opposition leader Jeremy
Corbyn in early April, in a last-ditch attempt to fashion a cross-party
compromise. This was something she had resisted for over two years, and many
have criticized May for focusing entirely on internal Tory party issues instead
of trying to find a consensus that a divided country could somehow live with.
While the likelihood of a satisfactory solution to the
Brexit conundrum doesn’t appear any closer, the fact that May agreed to sit
down with Corbyn was an acknowledgement that talking with the other side
presents a potential way out of the impasse.
The next time you open the newspaper and read about some issue or conflict, keep an eye out for mention of communication, or talks. It comes up quite a lot as a sticking point. Typically, observations will be about communication style, or lack of communication, or the need for communication. One reason Richard Plepler left HBO after it was taken over by AT&T was said to be that HBO and its new parent company had communication issues.
Strategic non-communication?
Of course, keeping people guessing by not letting them know what you are thinking or are planning, can be a tactical move. It can benefit you, and not them. It could simply be due to oblivion on the “silent party’s” part. Or it could be deliberate. This is how communication becomes “weaponized” as part of a power play. Needless to say, it is not pleasant to be on the receiving end of this game, especially when you are not prepared for it. What is the best response in such a case? Tit for tat, i.e. stop communicating yourself? Or seek out the opportunity to talk, knowing that you may be rebuffed? We should not forget, either, that there are also ways of communicating that don’t involve words. In a follow-up post, I will explore some of these options.
I’m often
asked what life as an independent consultant is like, typically by people who
have spent their working lives ensconced within an organization…while
fantasizing about breaking free.
What to say?
If you have ever hankered to play in a one-man band, put on a one-woman show, or
strike out on your own as a gun for hire, then yes,
independent consulting may
be for you. It can satisfy those urges — to a degree. It also demands
somewhat less creativity and risk-taking than the aforementioned vocations, while
allowing you to earn a pretty decent living.
…and the limits of that appeal
Independent
consulting is not, however, just about indulging in appealing work arrangements.
You still have plenty of obligations. The less that is imposed upon you by
others, e.g. managers, the more you have to impose upon yourself. You need to
substitute internal motivation for external motivation. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt,
with freedom comes responsibility. A big part of independent consulting is
about managing, or coping with, that freedom.
There are conditions
attached to being a free-wheeling consultant. This includes the need to be
self-motivated. You must also develop the discipline to manage your own
schedule, set your own internal deadlines, and find substitutes for the structure
and social interactions that a normal workplace provides. And although you will
be liberated from the yoke of the worst bosses, you’ll also want to avoid
becoming your own worst boss. In other words, there are tradeoffs.
Is there
anything in life that doesn’t involve trade-offs? No, there is not.
One hundred tasks
To return to
the one-man band analogy, consulting means doing a lot of tasks that normally would
be carried out by others. In fact, you would be delegating those chores right
now if you hadn’t turned down that plum managerial position last year.
Out of
curiosity, I recently made a list of everything I do, professionally, over the
course of a year. I came up with over 100 different tasks. (And yes, writing
this blog is one of them.) Those tasks that are normally divided among supervisors,
subordinates, and specialists — now fall in your lap as a solo
independent contractor.
You may have
a fantasy of specializing brilliantly at just one thing, of becoming, say, a
world-renowned expert in energy regulatory policy or on malaria. That’s a
luxury few consultants can afford. Going narrow means going deep, but going too
deep can become a problem if demand for that particular skill dries up, even
temporarily. I myself am a generalist. It took me years to figure out a balance
that works for me. Like Goldilocks, you want to build up capacities in the
“right” number of areas — not too many and not too few.
Many roles, one employee
As a
consultant you don’t split your identity, but you play many roles: supervisor,
researcher, data analyst, writer, administrative assistant, accountant,
business development specialist, PR person and so on. You are, to a greater or
lesser extent, going to have to internalize the various positions that
constitute, well, a small firm, while staying sane. What I mean by
“internalizing” is that, instead of different employees performing specialized
tasks, you have to do them all yourself, in effect consolidating the different
employee roles within yourself. To keep things moving, you’ll find yourself
almost continuously switching back and forth between them.
At a
minimum, you need to think of yourself as your own boss and your own employee.
A boss needs to manage the budget, make sure deadlines are met, ensure quality
control, motivate employees, and deliver results. An employee needs guidance,
instruction and direction, and to produce what is asked for. Sometimes I, in employee
mode, feel tired or lazy, or just totally bereft of inspiration. So, in manager
mode, I have to cajole, or lay down the law, to get my “employee” to complete
the darn task. Try out the carrots and sticks that work best for you.
Breaking it down
Here’s a tip:
depending on how your brain works: you may want to cut your work up into small slices,
and alternate between them. I’ve found that frequently changing tasks
throughout the day can be invigorating. When
you get tired of analyzing the data, you can revise your CV, after which you
can review that report, go to a meeting, review the background literature for
your next project, and answer emails in between. In this way, you give the different
parts of your brain a rest while still getting plenty done.
Other people
may prefer to set aside large blocks of time and complete a task in one
sitting. I really admire that. I know someone, a phlegmatic fellow, who will
sit down for eight or more hours at a time, with barely a break, staying up
into the wee hours of the morning to ram through a task to meet a deadline.
The outsourcing option
Another
option, especially if you are overwhelmed, is to consider outsourcing some of
your work. Depending on whether it makes financial sense, you can pay other
people to do some of your tasks. You probably have to absorb the costs as part
of your pay, since you are contracted as an individual. But it may be worth it,
if you find it allows you to take on more work and it improves the quality of
your outputs.
The key is
to find good people — who are reliable and deliver the
quality you want. Over the years, I have subcontracted work to research
assistants, editors, translators, and graphic designers on a short-term basis.
Find out who you are
The relative
freedom from the constraints of a nine-to-five life suits some people better
than others. You need to figure out whether you have what it takes to live
without fetters. It comes down to temperament. Do you do your best work in bed,
like Marcel Proust and Mark Twain? Be my guest. Does the ambient noise and
languid activity of a coffee shop help your neurons to fire? There are probably
a dozen choices within walking distance from where you live. Or do you find
that you do your most penetrating analysis in a beach house in Bermuda? Experiment
until you figure out an optimal routine.
And if you
discover that you are, in fact, your own worst boss, that management position
might start looking attractive. After you are back in an office, you can then hire
those freewheeling independent consultant colleagues to do the work for you…
