RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria

["Van Laan, Krista" <KVanlaan -at- verisign -dot- com>]

I just read Kevin's list of the 27 areas he looks into during
the interviewing process, and it reminded me of several points I wanted
to make. 

"TEA Lanham, Kevin" <Klanham -at- aus -dot- telusa -dot- com> said:
> As a hiring manager, I have found that portfolios of writing samples are
not
> as crucial in the interview process as many people think. They can help,
but
> are not decisive. Many people put things on their resume, but their degree
> of involvement becomes more evident during the discussions that follow.

<snip>

I find writing samples to be useful because I now always ask the writer
what the product does. I'm surprised at how many people cannot tell me
something
succinct and descriptive about the product they were writing about. 
It seems to me that someone
bringing a sample to an interview should be able to fully talk about the
sample,
and that would include knowing something about what the product is and how
it works.

The traits Kevin mentioned are all interesting, but in my experience, the
most important one is possibly what he called "22. Proactive   *Values*
Not satisfied to wait until told, recommend
solutions, not satisfied with status quo."
The best technical writers I've known do not sit at their desks and wait for
information to come to them; they go out and find it. These people are
curious
and active, always interested, and very aware of the world around them. 
They go out and find out about how things work because they want to, not
because they have to. They are much more
unlikely to have errors in their documents because they are always a step
ahead.

One of several ways in which I try to pick out these types during an
interviewing process
is that they are actively interested in getting the job, and they always
call
me to find out where I am in the process. I once received a call from a
writer I
had no plans to interview, but I brought him in just because he called and I
thought
that showed some initiative. He continued to show the same kind of proactive
energy during the interview and his follow-up phone call, and I ended up
hiring him even though he didn't have the experience I was looking for. He
was great,
one of the best technical writers I ever knew.

I think people who take advantage of opportunities to network are not
only helping themselves with future job possibilities, but also exhibiting 
the qualities that I think make a good staff writer. 
I'm surprised at how many people I meet
do not take advantage of networking. Recently, I met a couple who were
involved in a 
non-work-related committee I was on. I had sent them some email, and later I
saw the husband, who mentioned that he had checked out my Web site. He asked
me a bunch of questions about my job, my resume, my book, etc. I thought 
"Wow! If this guy was a tech writer and we had job openings, he's just the
type of person I like to hire." Then he told me his wife wants to change
careers and is taking a certificate course in technical writing. I was
impressed enough by him that I went over to her and mentioned that I am a 
hiring manager, that I had taught at a tech writing certificate school, etc.
She looked at me with almost no interest, and said, "Is that right?" and
changed the subject. A person who would miss the importance of the term
"hiring manager" is not, in my mind, going to be able to pick up on the 
importance of what a subject-matter expert says.

Soon after, similar happening. I met a person who had been laid off from
a documentation job and had been out of work for some time. I said that I
also
work in documentation. There was no response to this at all, and the person
complained for a while about being laid off and not having a job but never
once asked me what I do or where.

These are just a couple of examples, but I see this *so* often it really
surprises me. The importance of networking can't be underestimated. The
person
you meet might not have a job for you now, but they might later. And if
you made a good impression on them, your resume is going to stand way out.

 Krista

================================================
Krista Van Laan
Director of Technical Communications, Engineering   
VeriSign, Inc.  http://www.verisign.com
487 E. Middlefield Rd.    Mountain View, CA 94043    
tel: (650) 426-5158    fax: (650) 426-5195

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