Re: Recent unusual interview experiences
Bruce Byfield wrote:
As for thinking on your feet or being easily intimidated, these traits are useful in business development, where you might be negotiating with people, but how often are they relevant to writing?
Are you kidding? Have you ever been the only writer in a room full of
developers and had to defend a documentation decision, deadline, process,
convention, anything?
Not that I want to sound snotty, but, actually, no. I've made reports, and fielded questions, but I've never had to defend my decisions, or felt defensive, even though in most of my jobs I've had considerable autonomy.
I'm not exactly sure why. Part of the reason may be personality and manner; I'm told that I had learned the diplomatic art of being politely firm before I was in kindergarten. Another may be the fact that I taught first year English for seven years (including several stints on Monday at 8 AM when NOBODY wanted to be there), and I've learned how to convey without being aggressive that I won't take much grief from anyone. I'm probably helped, too, by my Linux journalism, which gives instant geek cred.
But most of the reason is probably that I always lay out the project plan and its dependencies right at the start, and keep everyone informed of the progress. If somebody questions what's happening, there's not much left to say when I point out that the plan was approved and/or the dependencies weren't met. The discussion ends very suddenly after that. I'm prepared, and very other people ever are.
In my view, negotiation is a HUGE part of technicalWell, to start with, negotiation hasn't been very necessary for me.
writing. Could you perhaps clarify your statement for me? Maybe I
misunderstand.
However, even assuming that I've been lucky, I stand by the statement. These traits may be a useful extra, but they're not the main ones I care about when hiring a writer. Outside of writing skills and technical expertise, I'm more interested in whether a job candidate can work with the people already hired.
If the writer is junior, then I care even less about their ability to think on their feet or whether they're easily intimidated. I wouldn't expect a junior writer to have these skills. Besides, just because someone reacts quickly doesn't mean that they react appropriately or well, just as not being intimidated can often mean being obnoxious or over-confident. More importantly, I consider that their senior colleagues or managers (meaning me, usually) have an obligation to take care of such matters on behalf of junior writers. If they want to learn how to handle them, fine - but they shouldn't be expected to do so right from the start.
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Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
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Re: Recent unusual interview experiences: From: Andrea Frazier
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