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Subject:RE: Conducting Telephone Interviews From:linda_sims -at- vanguard -dot- com To:Stuart Burnfield <sburnf -at- au1 -dot- ibm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 17 May 2006 08:12:57 -0400
Stuart Burnfield wrote on 05/17/2006 02:46:26 AM:
> Lin wrote:
> > I hate that question, too.
> >
> > I have no, none, ZILCH, interest in moving out of the tech
> > writing field or even out of being a tech writer with no
> > managerial/supervisory/project lead responsibilities. I'm
> > _happy_ as a tech writer. My only "ambition" or "desire for
> > growth" lays in learning more: learning more about the things
> > I'm documenting; learning more new things that I (may) then
> > document; and learning more new tools and new ways of doing
> > things (which I may or may not use to document something;
> > I have a strong tropism towards ooo! shiney!).
>
> If you said that to me at an interview it would be a _great_ answer.
> (That and slipping in a reference to Serenity would probably
> be enough to get you the job.)
>
> It amazes me how much people dislike this question.
> Why not just answer truthfully and see what happens?
>
> Stuart
Oddly enough, I've never seen either Firefly or Serenity--and I am a fan
of Joss Whedon. Gotta get around to it one of these days. Ooo! shiney! (or
references to Kipling's Elephant's Child) is how I've always described my
interest in anything new.
As for the answer to "where do you see yourself in 5 years" -- I've
actually said that at interviews a time or two, and not gotten the
associated job. Of course, that may be because I have a habit of telling
the truth in response to _any_ question I'm asked. I've learned how to do
a lot of things during my years as a tech writer, but for some reason I've
never been able to keep up with the latest naming fads. So if someone
asks, "have you ever worked with <insert acronym of latest fad>?" my usual
response is to blink and think--have I? Maybe under another name? Maybe
under no name at all, it was just part of the job?
The other day I saw an ad for a job that required experience in working
with knowledge trees. I didn't apply because I had no idea what they were
talking about; a friend tells me that yes, I do have experience with
knowledge trees--it's a fancy name for documenting multiple if decisions
(in programming class, it was If-Then(-maybe Else) or case statements).
Yeah, I've done that; it's how I work. But I'd never have known there was
a name for it, and I've certainly never been trained in it or done it
"formally". And interviewers look at you funny when you say, "I don't
know. Tell me what it is, I'll tell you if I've done it (or can do it)."
I've never found anything I didn't already know how to do that I couldn't
learn how to do very quickly to a high degree of competence. Sadly, that
doesn't seem to be the answer most of the interviewers I talk to want to
hear. It's a bit depressing, especially when you're job hunting.
Lin Sims
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