Re: Interviews and Portfolios

[Brad <kiwi -at- BEST -dot- COM>]

When I interview a writer, I *always* expect a portfolio. I specifically ask
to see some specific pages that the writer wrote. In fact, since I'm usually
not the first person to interview a given writer/candidate (my boss usually
is), I specifically ask before the interview begins for his or her "very
best original writing samples" that I can take away from the interviewing
room and give it a quick review by myself at my desk. I'll ask if I can
photocopy a few sample pages to show others, and that's never been a
problem.

Ideally if we had more time to interview, I would like to discuss specific
portfolio pieces with the writer, but during the actual interview I am too
busy evaluating other aspects of the writer.

At my desk outside of the interview and within a few minutes, I can get a
good idea about the writer's style and skill level.

I disqualify a technical writer who doesn't have a clue to bring a portfolio
to an interview. Last week two showed up for interviews without portfolios!
I was shocked. I've met some very nice candidates who have been applying for
both Lead and Manager Tech Pubs positions where I work, but in two cases the
writers did not even write at the junior level, otherwise they might have
come across as good candidates. It's all judgement, fair or not.

>
> I generally have a problem with portfolios. Often projects are created by
> several people, not just one - so how do you show in your portfolio your
> part in a project? The other thing is that, theoretically, you could
> download whatever takes your fancy from some tech author's web
> site and use
> it in your portfolio.

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