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RE: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview?
Subject:RE: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview? From:"Cascio, Justin" <Justin_Cascio -at- tvratings -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 15 Nov 1999 10:06:25 -0500
Good point, Maggie. You made me think of an issue we haven't addressed yet:
isn't an important skill for technical writers the ability to figure out how
a completely alien product works? I generally write most of my documentation
from design documents and maybe a half-functional real product (I work in
software.) How well does your candidate write procedures for an item s/he's
never seen before? Eventually, (you hope) the writer will be as familiar
with your company's products as s/he is with staplers, but I'd want to know
how quickly a candidate can learn what the product does, and whether s/he
can document procedures from design documents.
Justin Cascio
-----Original Message-----
From: MAGGIE SECARA [mailto:SECARAM -at- mainsaver -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 5:17 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: On-the-spot writing test during a job interview?
And then, how about giving them an actual stapler, so they don't have to
make its features up out of whole cloth, which is an exercise in fiction,
after all. Ok, I realize that may not be inappropriate for marketing, but
you might let the candidate focus on the task instead of trying to derive
some platonic ideal of "stapler".
