Re: Evaluating Candidates Using Tests, Logic Questions, and Simil ar
Gena Shurtleff [mailto:gena -at- originalgena -dot- com] asked:
On my team, we are working to improve our interview process. Our current
process relies mostly on what technical writers (or their references) think
their skills are and does not really give them much opportunity to exhibit
those skills. I am looking for suggestions from other writers on effective
ways to determine a candidate's true skill level with tools and writing style.
If a requirement of the job is that the person be able to read code in a specific language, and they need to start being intensely productive within a day or so of starting, then I suppose it makes sense to have a sample for them to decipher.
I don't "speak" any modern programming languages (and have forgotten the ones I learned in the distant past), so it would likely take me a couple of weeks to be able to read (say) C# or Ruby or whatever. So, given that I'd be wasting your time because that's most of what would be expected of me and I couldn't do it right away, it would be in your interest to find out in the interview... just don't spring it on me as a surprise ... or I might find out where you park your car... :-)
For general writing skills, you'd have my samples, and if you don't trust me to be presenting my own stuff, you could ask for a quick para or three on some topic.
Probably the most useful test, and the one that I'd least resent (and most expect) is an editing test. I should be able to read a few paragraphs and pick out the goofs. If there are some parts with which you disagree, I should be able to defend my choices (to change or to leave as-is).
As for tools... that's a very hit-or-miss thing. I may have used Word (or Frame, or you-name-it) for years, and not needed to do the specific tasks that you test for. I'd likely fall on my face under really short time pressure (in a test situation). But when it comes to getting the job done, I'd just figure out the new-to-me aspect of the tool while working, just as I do in every job. I have a resourceful brain, and I know where to go for Help and for help.
Just because I couldn't figure out and fix your arcane header-numbering-and-ToC-munging system in fifteen minutes doesn't mean that I was lying about my experience with the tool. I just hadn't done THAT with the tool before.
Of course, if part of your joy in the interview process is humiliating people who thought they were good for the job...
well that's another story... :-)
Kevin
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