RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria

Subject: RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria
From: "TEA Lanham, Kevin" <Klanham -at- aus -dot- telusa -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 14:40:45 -0600


As a hiring manager, I have found that portfolios of writing samples are not
as crucial in the interview process as many people think. They can help, but
are not decisive. Many people put things on their resume, but their degree
of involvement becomes more evident during the discussions that follow.
Their answers provide much about what they really know about the process,
the product, etc. Also, I ask for a writing sample during the interview
process. I have seen a few portfolios where the candidate's effort was a
very small part, but that did not come out until further questions were
asked.

I've interviewed almost 1000 people. I was a IT recruiter for a recruiting
outfit in a one prior life. Interviewing is the same for technical
communicators as it is for software engineers. Oddly enough, it is very
similar for high fashion models going to open model calls (not me, long
story). From my perspective, the biggest issue in interviewing is fit. Do
you fit the company and do they fit you? Easily said, what do I mean?

The fit areas I work to discover during the interview process include as
many of the following as I can squeeze in to the interviews (I have adapted
some of this from some other sources. I share it only to illustrate what I
feel are the real issues). I actually rank candidates based on these
criteria. I also weight these criteria for importance to our openings. Yes
it is subjective, but the sorted decision matrix helps keep all the
candidates straight. We rank them immediately after each interview. I've
also simply winged it, relying on experience to judge, but the hiring
results are not as consistent. In no particular order, here are the criteria
I use. I tend to ask questions aimed at getting to these issues.

1. Adaptability/Flexibility *Mindset* Taking into account contingencies,
anticipating changes, and understanding interdependencies within systems.
2. Curiosity *Mindset* Maintain their curiosity and drive to stay
current and informed. Adjust to changing environments
3. Risk Taking *Mindset* The willingness to place something valued in
a position or situation where it could be exposed to damage or loss. The
very nature of learning the subject matter requires risk taking. Gains
require risk taking.
4. Creativity *Mindset* The self-confidence and motivation to engage
independently in learning, exploring, and creatively thinking as a daily
activity
5. Objectivity *Mindset* Professionally taking edits on your work,
not taking changes personally.
6. Troubleshooting *Competencies* Critical thinking, informed decision
making, and problem solving
7. Sound Reasoning *Competencies* The capacity to think logically in
order to find results or draw conclusions. Sound reasoning begins with the
careful definition and clarification of a problem. It then becomes an
iterative process of learning more about the subject matter, refining, and
then solving the problem. This process requires the ability to find, sort
through, and evaluate information; test variables; maintain balance; cull
extraneous materials; validate information sources; and resolve conflicting
SME accounts of situations.
8. Teaming (writing team) *Competencies* Participating in a team,
teaching others new skills, serving customers.
9. Teaming (SME, stakeholders) *Competencies* Exercising leadership,
negotiating.
10. Collaboration (writing team) *Competencies* Successful
collaboration is dependent on the individual's and group's ability to devise
a strategy to divide a task into pieces based on the strengths of the
individuals. Iterative collaborations by email, voice mail, audio- and
videoconferencing, shared documents, and virtual workspaces allow rapid
progress of work on shared documents and projects, they also require a
greater attention to detail than is necessary in face-to-face interactions.
11. Collaboration (SME, stakeholders) *Competencies* Leading
collaboration with other groups outside of documentation. Facilitating group
planning. Responsiveness to group communication.
12. Manage Complexity, Ability to Prioritize, Plan, and Get Results
*Competencies* Our level of complexity often requires them to carefully
plan, estimate and manage their work, and to anticipate contingencies. They
need to be able to compare planned to actual results and adjust. In
addition, it requires concentration (focus) on the main goals of a
project-an ability to keep an eye on the outcomes so as to guide and align
all facets of the project toward that goal. In doing so, resource management
(time, space, materials) is required to execute a plan successfully
13. Technical Aptitude *Competencies* Quickness in learning and
understanding technical subject matter; intelligence. A natural or acquired
disposition or capacity for a particular technical purpose, or tendency to a
particular action or effect. Not cowed by technical subjects or tools.
14. Interactive Communication *Competencies* Interactive communication is
the ability to convey, exchange, transmit, access, and understand
information. These skills should include asynchronous and synchronous
communication such as person-to-person email interactions, email lists,
group interactions in virtual workspaces, interactive videoconferencing, and
phone/audio interactions. Such interactions require knowledge of etiquette
often unique to that particular environment.
15. Editing 1 *Competencies* Prioritizing, what should be edited?,
content questions vs. proofreading, estimate actual time needed
16. Editing 2 *Competencies* How well they did what they chose to do?
17. Writing sample - Target the audience *Competencies* How well did
they target the audience?
18. Writing Sample - Visual effectiveness *Competencies* Draw a
sketch for the graphic artists - addresses identifying need for visual aids
and how they see the instructive task visually, and how they choose the
angle, frame of reference, and context to communicate.
19. Writing sample - Clarity *Competencies* Is their writing clear?
20. Writing sample - organization, style assumptions *Competencies* We
give no guidance. I want to see what assumptions they make.
21. Writing sample - Substance, content *Competencies*
22. Proactive *Values* Not satisfied to wait until told, recommend
solutions, not satisfied with status quo
23. Personal Responsibility *Values* Individual accountability
for ethical, legal actions related to the use of technology and
technology-related products
24. Balancing Deadlines vs. Perfection *Values*
25. Interview assertiveness *Behavioral style* How much do they
interview us? (transfers to SME interviewing)
26. Interpersonal Skills (writing team) *Behavioral style* The ability
to interact smoothly with others and to work together with one or more
people to achieve goals.
27. Interpersonal Skills (SME, stakeholders) *Behavioral style* I
break this out from the writing team because it tends to differ many people.

It would be nice to have some list of objective criteria, but interviewing
is really picking the best person relative to the available pool of
candidates.

Having a portfolio can help a little, but it really doesn't answer these
areas of interest for me very effectively. Maybe it helps more for
situations where the hiring manager has never been a technical writer. A
portfolio may also be very effective if the hiring manager has very little
experience interviewing.

That's my two cents, albeit only tangentially related to the original
thread.

Kevin



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