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As we know, the practice of some HR departments is to do straight filtering
based on particular educational criteria. As many tech writers have varied
educational backgrounds, this can be a significant problem when the
educational requirements are narrowly defined. I'm not sure how quickly
this suggested change to skills and aptitude testing, as described in the
article, is going to occur.
The article is worth reading for information about various quantitative
techniques for evaluating candidates, although it is not, of course,
specifically focused towards technical writers. But it may give some ideas.
I also think it would be useful to think about how a prospective (or
current) technical writer could build a basket of measurable skills that
would establish competence. And although it might seem difficult to measure
how a candidate would interact with SMEs, for example, I suspect there are
ways to do that too.
Lois
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