Questions to ask during interview to filter out tulip clients

[Criticular]

We all want good clients and do not want to deal with problematic ones. How do you try to filter bad ones out? One way of doing this is certainly asking questions during interview but the thing is - you cannot just ask "are you a tulip client"? So what are the questions which look perfectly legitimate but give a clue about the client's environment?

[SueEllen]

If you don't know already how to ask questions like that then there is no hope for you.

How did you get your permanent jobs?

[missinggreenfields]

I don't ask - take a short initial stint, and you can always stick it out if you're cut out for contracting.

Think of the money, invoice, and leave if you aren't happy. Don't waste time trying to work out how bad things will be at the interview stage.

[northernladuk]

The only bad client is one that doesn't pay IMO. The rest is irrelevant to me

You need to define what you consider to be a crap client. It's highly subjective with some people not minding what other people can't deal with. Unless you specify what you are after I can't see how you are going to get any kind of answer you are happy with.

[Criticular]

Unless you specify what you are after I can't see how you are going to get any kind of answer you are happy with.

Well, if you need a specification, one of things would be a percentages of past contracts with that client which were extended, terminated prematurely and completed.

[northernladuk]

Well, if you need a specification, one of things would be a percentages of contracts with that client which were extended, terminated prematurely and completed.

That is called business. It's also aligned to the work you are doing i.e. the project and the budget. Not a crap client.

Didn't think this was going to go well.

[MrMarkyMark]

Well, if you need a specification, one of things would be a percentages of contracts with that client which were extended, terminated prematurely and completed.

How on earth do you think you will get the answer to that

[jmo21]

fwiw, I always ask as many questions as I can get away around their development process/tools (since I'm a developer)

Do they have/use:
Source control, CI, testers, open source tools, bug tracking
what environments do they have (dev, test, prod?) how easy is it to get a new one (eg. are they virtual)

some should be gimmes, but you'd be surprised.

[GB9]

The main questions I ask are to understand if they genuinely want a consultant to bring skills and experience or if they want a BoS to fill gaps as required. Other than that, get on with it.

[WTFH]

Well, if you need a specification, one of things would be a percentages of contracts with that client which were extended, terminated prematurely and completed.

That depends on the type of contract you are going for. If it's project work, you want to know the likelihood that it will go live (on time/at all).


If you're trying to find out how many contractors they terminate before the end of the contract, you then need to know did they do it because:
1. They ran out of money
2. The work/project got cancelled
3. The contractor was not up to scratch
4. The agent was not up to scratch