[lsc]

it's something I need very much. but part of needing it is that I'm not... particularly qualified to evaluate your ability to give it to me, which makes things difficult.

Really, that's the hard part about hiring help in general; the areas where you need the most help, you generally don't have the skill required to recognize skill, so you are reliant entirely on credentials, and even picking which credentials to select for is difficult when you don't know the field.