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In terms of the writing basics, when I interview my favourite question
is asking candidates to explain the process of writing a guide. I'm
obviously expecting information from planning, through writing, to
reviewing. It very quickly separates out the people who have written
guides and are comfortable with the process from those who once wrote a
spec and think they're technical writers. My favourite interview was one
where someone summarised the whole writing process as "then I bash the
content in". I think that made it in to the department quote book!
I'm a fan of tests too. In my previous company we gave people
information from a spec, plus some more background information, and
asked them to make the information usable. Bit more precise than this,
obviously! It was a short test (approx 30 mins, but not timed - they
finished when they were ready) and we didn't stand over them! We were
expecting a procedure and it made knocking people off the list very easy
when we got a paragraph of chat instead. Or a copy/paste job just
reformatted - the "bash it in" approach! Most people did a good job but
it got rid of the people who didn't have a clue.
Overall I think a test can confirm what you already suspect from the
interview and it's sometimes useful to have justification of decisions
for HR.
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