Re: Interested in input from managers and individual contributors on hiring newbies

[Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

If "no experience" means a new grad who has never had a job of ANY kind 
except being a student, that's a tough one. In 25 years as a manager I 
never hired anyone like that.

During my years as a manager I made quite a few "new" tech writers out 
of field service, manufacturing and lab techs. Most of these people had 
experience doing writing of some kind in their previous jobs (proposals, 
reports, etc.) or were reviewers of documents being written, and that 
was enough to give them a starting place.

If you are a student now, look for opportunities to acquire experience. 
Internships, research and teaching assistant postings, student 
publications, etc. Anything that demonstrates your ability to gather 
information, organize it and produce a coherent result, especially if 
requires meeting deadlines. That's the kind of stuff hiring managers 
want to see in a writer candidate.

Gene Kim-Eng


On 3/19/2021 9:30 AM, Van Laan, Krista wrote: