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Subject:Re: The Results (Long)/Addendum From:surfer_924 -at- earthlink -dot- net To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 19 Aug 2003 06:26:27 -0600
>Out of the 26 people I interviewed, two people came in shorts, sandals,
>and a t-shirt; four people never showed for their interview; one lady
>answered her cell phone during her >interview, drilled me on how I was
>marketing my company, and never shook my hand when she left;
These stories seem to be more and more commonplace in the business world
(unfortunately). One question: will your writers be dealing with clients
at any point? The ones you described above I would hide in a back office
somewhere (if they could write).
>and all them indicated they had writing experience, but over 75% of them
>could not write. When I looked at their samples, I knew they did not have
>proper training. I found spelling, punctuation, and layout mistakes.
I think I mentioned it in an earlier post, but in my experience *everyone*
thinks they can write. I would give them some kind of writing test geared
toward the type of writing they will be doing (after they passed the
initial screening).
>I may have become biased, or just smarter, but I decided I will only
>interview people with writing courses and who are members of STC or a
>writing association. I interviewed two people that just graduated from a
>professional writing degree program, and I could see a huge positive
>difference in their writing samples. They were great writing samples.
I agree with you about only interviewing people with writing courses, but
to echo what has been already been said on this list, being an STC member
only means you were able to come up with the membership fee. My experience
with STC has been that its members are more adept at serving on committees
and giving presetations than at technical writing. If you?re looking for
some type of screening tool, why not just use the resume? A poorly written
resume with grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors speaks volumes about
a candidate?s writing ability and attention to detail, and gives you a
good idea what one of their deliverables would look like.
