Exercises and resources: What I need to know to work in evaluation

Enhance your career by mastering evaluation competencies through self-assessment, identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and creating an actionable plan to improve. Use the provided exercises and resources to reflect on your skills and strategically grow as an evaluator.

Exercises

Find a competency framework that suits you

Don’t let all the competency frameworks available overwhelm you! Follow these steps to find a framework that is relevant for you:

  1. Find an evaluation association or VOPE in your country or region
  2. Do they have a competency framework?
    • If yes -> start with that one.
    • If no -> go to step 3.
  3. Explore other competency frameworks.
  4. Do any of them describe the sector or role that you are aspiring to work in?
    • If yes -> start with that one.
    • If no -> go to step 5.
  5. Reach out to an experienced evaluator in your sector and ask them what competency framework they recommend you use.

Remember, even among experienced evaluators there is no consistency in the titles, grouping of evaluations, and definition of terms.

Try to avoid analysis paralysis. Most frameworks cover similar content. The important thing is to have a roadmap of competencies to work with.

Track market demand and trends in evaluation

The field of evaluation is constantly evolving. New trends include highlighting the importance of promoting the use of evaluation findings, building evaluation capacity, and using evaluation for transformational changes. Other sectors also increasingly look to evaluation to address complex questions such as venture capital. Specific skills can be helpful to grow within niche areas of evaluation!

Stay up to date on evaluation research, methods, and regional discourses to understand trends in evaluation and how you can apply them to your work. Some specific ideas to try include:

  • Join your local VOPE to expand your professional networks and keep abreast of current research, ideas, and opportunities.
  • Sign up for newsletters and online discussion groups to see what ideas and resources are being shared and talked about.
  • Attend an evaluation conference to stay current with current trends and discourses (gLocal and Youth in Evaluation Week are free and online, so they're a good place to start).
  • Use social media to connect with other evaluators and learn about upcoming events.

Activating your career with evaluation competencies

Once you become familiar with evaluation competencies, you can leverage them to enhance your career.  This process not only helps in identifying actionable steps for career growth but also helps in honing your reflective practice, a crucial skill promoted by all frameworks!

  1. Self-assessment: Conduct a self-assessment for each competency from the framework of your choice.
  2. Identify strengths and weaknesses: Determine your top 5 strongest and weakest competencies.
  3. Leverage strengths: Reflect on how you can use your 5 strengths to increase your contributions in evaluation.
  4. Address weaknesses: Brainstorm various strategies to strengthen your 5 weaknesses. These could include enrolling in a course, seeking volunteer opportunities, requesting specific opportunities at work, shadowing an evaluator, reading relevant literature, and more. Be creative!
  5. Action plan: Develop a plan to address your weaknesses. Include specific actions you will undertake and set deadlines for each.

Resources

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