RE: Sample document creation for contract position

Subject: RE: Sample document creation for contract position
From: "Victoria Wroblewski" <victoria -dot- wroblewski -at- eagletest -dot- com>
To: "Melissa Lowery-Smith" <artsyreader -at- yahoo -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:33:11 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Lowery-Smith
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 10:36 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Sample document creation for contract position

>I was recently asked to create a 10-15 page document (they referred to
it as a technical test) >based on a brief interview with an SME as part
of the interview process for a 3-6 month technical >writer contract.

A request for electronic samples isn't too out there. A lot of times,
they just want to distribute them to the people you will interview with
ahead of time. As an interviewer, you can come up with a more specific
list of questions than you can get when quickly flipping through
someone's paper portfolio.

But a "technical test" on that level is asking for a bit much. At my
last workplace, we did use a small test when we were trying to find a
new writer ("make a procedure out of this") but it a quick web search
would have revealed that it was for a product that was already released
with complete documentation - there was no way any of it would be used
for anything other than judging how the potential writer went about
putting together the procedure. And it was the same test for every
potential new writer.

My first stint at contacting was a paid 20 hours that produced a 15-page
document and resulted in a "we can take it from here" from the company,
so yeah, I'd take it that they were trying to get a free document.

I definitely would have gone back to the company and explained that they
were looking for too specific of a writing sample to be provided for
free. I'd give them the benefit of the doubt that they may not have
known how out of line their request was, and a chance to correct their
action. If they still didn't think they were out of line, then I'd have
your reaction.

- V

**This transmission may contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the information contained herein (including any reliance thereon) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you received this transmission in error, please immediately contact the sender and destroy the material in its entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you.**
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals.
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


References:
Sample document creation for contract position: From: Melissa Lowery-Smith

Previous by Author: RE: At what point can I pass the buck?
Next by Author: Re: Subcontractors and billing
Previous by Thread: RE: Sample document creation for contract position
Next by Thread: Re: Sample document creation for contract position


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads