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Subject:Re: Interview Questions (a question) From:Bill Swallow <bill_swallow -at- ROCKETMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 12 May 1998 12:19:49 -0700
Personally, if you ask me process-related questions in an interview,
you should be ready to open your wallet. I don't just give that info
out to anyone, ESPECIALLY an interviewer. Who's to say they don't
thank you for the mission-vital info and never call you back?
As far as the boat and cannonball question, I believe you had my
answer. Any left-field question deserves nothing more than a
left-field answer.
---Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM> wrote:
>
> cheri -
>
> > 1. If you had to hold one technical writing position for the rest
of
> > your life, what would you be doing (online help, user manuals,
etc.)?
> > 2. What sources did you implement in creating your manual (a
writing
> > sample that I sent them)? When I mentioned Weiss and Alred, they
> > continued to ask me what I liked and disliked about each of the
texts
> > that I used.
> > 3. What do you think/know about usability testing?
> > 4. Can you work on numerous projects at once?
> > 5. How did you go about taking your manual from paper to online
> > (RoboHelp)?
> >
> > I know most of these are not like the ones that others have posted.
> > But, I was curious as to whether these questions are at all familiar
> > in most TW interviews. My current boss didn't really know what he
> > needed, so he didn't ask many questions (and he knew I was in the TW
> > program at the university).
>
> These are appropriate questions (among others) to ask of potential
tech
> writers. "What's your favorite color?" and other non sequiturs are,
in
> my opinion, completely out of line. However, since my company
values a
> person's ability to pursue independent research, we often ask
questions
> about college majors, or something that will give the candidate an
> opportunity to show how they research something that has few
> guidelines. What we're looking for is a basic curiosity about
things,
> a characteristic that implies the person can look beyond the source
> material and use different ways to find out how something works.
>
> The question about dropping something in the ocean and asking how long
> till it gets to the bottom is only marginally appropriate for a tech
> writer. In that question, you're ultimately looking for the kind of
> knowledge a person carries around in his head, not if he knows how to
> find resources to determine the answer. Good tech writers MAY carry a
> lot in their heads, but their value is more in knowing where to look
for
> answers and then how to present the information. If I were asked a
> question like that, I'd consider the interviewer a game-player, and
> his/her environment one where you had to spend proportionately more
> energy dodging politics than producing good material. And I avoid
> heavily political environments like the sick workplaces they are.
>
> Elna Tymes, president
> Los Trancos Systems
>
>
>
> Send commands to listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g., SIGNOFF
TECHWR-L)
> Find contractor info at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/contractors.htm
>
>
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