Re: Interviews and Portfolios

[Wally Glassett <wallyg1 -at- PACBELL -dot- NET>]

I agree with Cam. Whenever a prospective client asks for samples my
immediate reaction is that they don't know what they want. I always bring
samples to an interview, but consider it a real negative if the prospect
looks at them for more than a few minutes, if at all. Why? I write for my
clients, and in most cases every client situation is different. What I did
for A is extremely unlikely to mean anything of substance to B.

I do have one funny story. I once (and only once!) sent some samples by
e-mail to a Director of Software Engineering because we were having trouble
arranging a face-to-face meeting. I received a barely comprehensible reply
that was so full of spelling, grammar and syntax errors it would have
received an "F" in any seventh grade English class. I cannot even imagine
how that person could have ever reviewed anything I might have written for
him.

And, BTW, I came to technical writing from the technical/scientific side of
the world, not from the literature/humanities side...

Wally Glassett
Tech Doc-It, Inc.
wallyg1 -at- pacbell -dot- net

-----Original Message-----
From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues
[mailto:TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU]On Behalf Of Cam Whetstone
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 9:37 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Interviews and Portfolios

         Eric thoughtfully wrote:
> An employer is certainly within her rights to demand a portfolio.
> She is not, however, within her rights to ask the candidate if she can
> photocopy the samples.
>

While the employer is within her rights to ask for a portfolio, I am
within my rights to say, "thanks, but no thanks."  I do not want to
work for someone who knows so little about what we do for a living
that they ask for a portfolio.  I am not a graphic artist or painter.
I am a technical writer.  I went through two telephone interviews for
a 'position' with a company in New Jersey.  After the second
interview, the first person I interviewed with then asked me to submit
writing samples.  I told them "thanks, but no thanks."  The head
hunter called and asked why and I explained that I would not submit
samples, and that I considered the interview process finished.  If
really necessary I would bring some samples to discuss at the
interview, but these thigs were not mine to send copies all over
creation.  My objective is to work for someone who knows what I do,
not someone who needs a writing sample to evaluate a technical writer.

C. R. (Cam) Whetstone
old timey technical writer

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