Re: Writing samples and portfolios

[Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- SLIP -dot- NET>]

Well, I feel old enough to qualify for the grey team, though my hair
retains its original brown color...  That said, I, too, bring a tote bag
full of books as samples rather than a portfolio to interviews.

At my last interview, just over two years ago, I showed several of those
samples to the folks interviewing me.  I can't remember now whether they
asked or I offered the samples and they were too polite not to look at
them.  The samples prompted some interesting and useful discussions, but I
don't know how much they influenced the decision to hire me.

At 11:33 AM 1/25/98 -0800, joanne grey wrote:
>
>I (a greying head if not grey beard) always bring a few samples, and am
>either not asked to show them, or the interviewer looks at them politely
>but cursorily. It seems to me that because:(a) they may not be all my
>work, (b) they might not even be my work at all, or (c) the interviewer
>has criteria that don't require samples - including some that just like
>to use conversation to see if the interviewee has a good command of the
>language, they have become if not irrelevant, at least relegated to the
>back seat.

I don't know why interviewers don't look at samples, though all of your
reasons make sense.  I know that I consider writing samples a crucial part
of the process when I interview potential writers.  I have had enough
experiences over the years where a person seemed perfect for a job, but the
samples indicated otherwise.  Conversely, I have also been in a situation
where I considered a writing sample absolutely wonderful and the writer did
not work out at all after we hired her.

I think, as others have said in this thread, that it is important to ask
about how samples were created, and what a person might have done
differently given different schedules or style constraints.  Sometimes that
gives me more information than either the general interview questions or
the content of the samples presented.

>I think that showing your real personality - including chutzpah -
>instead of what you think the interviewer is looking for will ultimately
>serve everyone much better. Often, it's the personality match that is
>the hardest to get.
>
I agree completely with this.  The more genuine a person is during an
interview, the better sense I have that I will be able to work with him or
her.  And the better sense he or she will have about being able to work
with me.

martha

--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
mailto:editrix -at- slip -dot- net
Senior Technical Writer

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
 If I am only for myself, what am I?
 If not now, when?"
        --Hillel, "Mishna, Sayings of the Fathers 1:13"