Re: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe

[Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

I've been reading this thread with interest since it's turned to good
interview questions and answers. Be careful, though, with glib answers--they
can boomerang. Here's what I mean.

To the question "what's your biggest weakness?" one person offered "I refuse
to sacrifice quality for quantity," meaning he wouldn't send out a document
until he was done with it. I'm a student of documentation quality and a
manager, and I know that sometimes schedule is critical. (In our business, we
support retail operations, and Christmas never slips.) In fact, I specifically
ask candidates what they would do if they found a typo in the final version of
a document, and to me, that would not be the "right" answer. (I recognize it
might be yours.)

Another offered as an answer to "what's your biggest weakness?" the answer "I
can't stand to work with anyone who doesn't give 110% percent," and said that
answer earned him a job offer on the spot. Great! I saw it and my stomach
tightened. I play volleyball with someone who can't stand to play with people
who don't give 100% (allowing for mathematical reality). The problem is, he's
the judge, and we're not all perfect. You can call my skills nonexistent (and
this week, in the heat of the moment, he did 8^(, but we're trying to win
games, not be perfect. His talent barely makes up for his attitude. So I don't
know if I could manage a person who declared he would refuse to work with a
team member if, in his estimation, the other's work was inadequate.

On the other hand, the discussion of Kuhn and paradigm shifts suggested some
great answers! I think it's valuable to express the idea that we translate the
paradigm of engineers into the paradigm of end users; the two can indeed be
hugely different. I'll give you an example: I used to work for Digital (didn't
we all 8^( on network management software. I've forgotten a lot of it, but I
can still tell you how to deactivate the FDDI link between LKG and ZKO. How?
Drum roll and spoiler warning...

The cable runs under my mother's driveway--I'd dig it up and cut it.

(I guarantee you no software engineer will ever think of that answer, but it's
absolutely true!)

          -- Steve

Steven Jong, Documentation Team Manager ("Typo?  What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc, 67 S. Bedford St., Burlington, MA 01803 USA
mailto:Jong -at- lightbridge -dot- com   781.359.4902[V], 781.359.4500[F]
Home Sweet Homepage: http://members.aol.com/SteveFJong


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