Tech writing interviews (Naive Interviewers)

[Peter Collins <peter -dot- collins -at- BIGFOOT -dot- COM>]

Shannon wrote: "[if I] had an interview with people who kept asking, "But
where do you get all those details if nobody writes it for you?" and "What
does a technical writer DO besides make it look pretty? ... " - I would not
have wanted to work for these individuals. ... What are some other thoughts
about this subject?"
    Well, looking at this from the employER's point of view, consider how
you might want to conduct the interview if your last two 'technical
writers' had been well qualified in literature - say, but actually were
hopeless at the task they were employed for? Assuming that you didn't know
too much, yourself, about technical writing, how would you use your first
few questions so to prevent a recurrance of that mistake? Might you not use
exactly the questions quoted? If you already knew the answers, the
interviewees' replies would tell you whether they at least understood what
they were required to do, and how and why, albeit in general terms.
    What about replying briefly to those questions, demonstrating your
familiarity with the craft, and then ask some well directed questions to
discover whether this was a firm that would support their writers with
priority access to content experts and with fast turn-round of reviews;
where THEY saw themeselves getting value from their documentation; why THEY
wanted a technical writer; what main characteristics THEY thought most
valuable in their writers? Then if you decided not to want to work with
them, it would be on the basis of a fuller set of facts than just the
observation of an amateurish interviewing technique.
    It may indeed be that the interviewers need some help in setting up the
guidelines and criteria for the interview and selection of a technical
writer. But this is not an indictable offense. Doesn't it actually provide
a fertile opportunity to show in a subliminal way your own ability to
interview, get facts, marshall them and provide a properly focussed
restatement of the relevant material? And at the same time find out what
these people will be like to work with?
    Aren't we professionals? Aren't the skills of getting control of a
meeting and getting the facts out, the very ones we are selling? What's
wrong with using them at interview, to get it moving in the right
direction, to get the facts for yourself, and put yourself in the best
light thereby? After all, if these guys knew so much about technical
writing in the first place, they might not need your skills! (Only
kidding).

    P
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Peter Collins, VIVID Management Pty Ltd,
26 Bradleys Head Road, MOSMAN 2088, Australia
+61 2 9968 3308, fax +61 2 9968 3026, mobile +61 (0)18 419 571
Management Consultants and Technical Writers
email: peter -dot- collins -at- bigfoot -dot- com                ICQ#: 10981283
web pages: http://www.angelfire.com/pe/pcollins/
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