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>>Here's a related question: Does anyone see anything wrong with putting
>>pieces
>>in your portfolio that were collaborative efforts with other writers-
>Nothing wrong with it if you say that it was a collaborative effort and
>exactly what part you played in the completion of the piece. Something
very
>wrong if you don't make this point of clarification and try to pass it off
>as something that you did alone.
Sometimes, in fact, I find this can impress the interviewer still more: if
you can show them a sample of your work and explain "I wrote the first three
chapters, chapters 4 and 5 each represent a collaboration between myself and
the relevant subject matter expert, and the code in the appendix was written
by an SME and proofread by me. I did all the diagrams and screenshots, and I
indexed the manual." Much more convincing that a simple "Oh yes, I wrote
that."
The only time I've ever been on the other side of the table, I did ask for
writing samples from all three candidates, but I didn't exactly read them in
depth. What I did was skim them for typos and other errors, read bits to see
if there was a feel that the writer could put a sentence and a paragraph
together, and asked the candidates questions about how they'd put it
together in the interview. One candidate was dismissed on the basis of his
previous experience as "not technical enough" (this wasn't my idea), and of
the other two, one was very clearly the better candidate. She didn't have a
portfolio, but did provide us with a sample when specifically asked (edited
to remove company and product names), and could answer questions on it
sensibly. The other had a portfolio, but the material included typos and he
didn't seem to have a clear idea of what he'd been doing on the example I
picked out. There were other reasons why we went for her instead of him, but
those were the portfolio-related reasons.
Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone. Apologies
for the long additional sig: it is added automatically and outwith my
control.
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