41 - Where do we even begin when introducing evaluation consulting?

Abstract Information: How do you introduce students and emerging evaluation professionals to independent evaluation consulting? Every informational interview and student talk I do feels incomplete these days. My personal trajectory into consulting followed over a decade in nonprofits, including direct services, coalition, capacity building, and internal evaluation roles. Many consultants follow very different pathways to the one I took—through academia, government, and for-profit positions—and end up in consulting for very different reasons. What do we have in common that brought us to evaluation consulting? What academic and professional pathways do we recommend to prepare the next generation of evaluators? How can we introduce evaluation consulting in a way that doesn’t sound overwhelming? How do we open the doors into this work for members of historically excluded and underrepresented communities? This session will engage participants in activities and conversations to uncover their trajectories into evaluation, how they were introduced to the field, what prepared them the best for their current roles, what happened when they switched among the different ways of engaging in the field (internal, independent consulting, academic, etc.), and how they would do things differently if they were to start again. Participants will discuss how they offer career advice and mentorship, hire and subcontract to newer evaluators, and generally welcome newer evaluators into the field. What can we learn from each other to offer more inclusive pathways?