A delivery head interviews a finance functional consultant with a clean CV. Two certifications, six years, three go-lives listed. Every answer is fluent. Ten weeks after joining, the consultant cannot explain why the client's credit block keeps releasing orders, and the project manager is rewriting the design document at night.
This is a hiring problem, not a talent problem. The interview tested vocabulary. The job needs judgement about how a business runs. Below is a method that tests the second thing, built for partners who implement ERP for mid-sized clients and compete for people with much larger firms.
What a certificate does and does not tell you
A certificate tells you the person studied a module and passed an exam on a particular release. That has value. It shows effort and gives a shared vocabulary. It says little about whether they have sat through a fit-gap session, argued a custom report down to a standard one, or trained a store clerk who hates the new screen.
Treat the certificate as an entry ticket, not a score. Many strong consultants learned on live projects and certified later. Some certified people have only ever configured a sandbox.
Split the role before you test it
Functional consultants differ from technical ones, and the test should differ too. A functional consultant owns the business process, the configuration choices and the conversation with the client. A technical consultant owns the code, the integrations and the data load. If you list one vague job and interview everybody the same way, you will hire the wrong mix. A clear job description and role design written first saves several wasted interview rounds.
A four-round process that tests thinking
- 1
Screen on one real project
Ask the candidate to walk through one implementation: client type, modules, team size, their own scope and how long they stayed after go-live. Vague answers about 'the team' are a signal. Note what they say I did versus we did.
- 2
Run a scenario round
Give a short business situation, such as a distributor whose sales team gives discounts outside the price list. Ask how they would capture requirements, which configuration options exist and what they would refuse to customise.
- 3
Do a gap-fit exercise
Hand over one page describing an order to cash or procure to pay flow with three odd steps. Ask where standard functionality fits, where it does not, and what they would ask the client first.
- 4
Check the after-go-live story
Ask what broke in the first month, who found it, and what they changed. Consultants who have lived through a messy cutover answer differently from those who left before it.
- 5
Debrief with separate scores
Each interviewer fills the scorecard alone, then the panel compares. Disagreements are useful, so discuss them instead of averaging them away.
What good answers sound like
- They ask questions before answering: how many warehouses, who approves a discount, what happens today when stock is short.
- They separate what the standard product does from what the client wants, and say plainly when a request is a habit rather than a need.
- They can name a mistake of their own and what they changed afterwards.
- They explain the process in plain words that a store manager would follow, not only in module names.
- They know their limits. A finance consultant who says 'I would bring in a colleague for manufacturing costing' is safer than one who claims every area.
A sample scorecard to adapt
Candidate, role, module area, interviewer, date.
Own scope on last project: clear / partly clear / unclear. Evidence noted.
Requirement gathering: asked useful questions before proposing? Score 1 to 4 with a note.
Process understanding: explained the flow in business language? Score 1 to 4 with a note.
Configuration judgement: knew when not to customise? Score 1 to 4 with a note.
Client handling: described a hard conversation and how it ended? Score 1 to 4 with a note.
Honesty about limits and mistakes: score 1 to 4 with a note.
Certificates held and release versions: record only, not scored.
Overall: hire / hire with a named support plan / do not hire. One-line reason.Reference checks and the offer
Ask the previous project manager, not only the HR contact, what the person owned. A short call with a named question list works better than a form. Keep any check consent-based and tell the candidate who you will speak to.
Once you decide, make the offer match the level you scored, not the level on the CV. Your pay structure should be consistent across similar consultants. Our IT specialised recruitment support helps partners set up these rounds and run the scoring with them.
Plan the first ninety days of a new consultant
Good hiring can be undone by a poor start. Pair the new consultant with a senior on a live project, give them one defined module and review their first design document line by line. The enterprise software company HR guide covers how larger delivery teams organise this.
Staffing a single large project well is a separate skill from hiring one person. See staffing an ERP implementation from kick-off to go-live for the team-level view.
Careers matter at the offer stage too. Strong consultants ask where they will be in three years, so read career paths for functional and technical consultants before your next final round.
