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Re: Why don't more job interviews use writing tests?

Subject: Re: Why don't more job interviews use writing tests?
From: Iliana Kostova <i_kostadinova -at- prosyst -dot- bg>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:08:02 +0200


As a publications manager, I tend to always check new applicants on-site by making them write a procedure that a programmer or a system operator should follow in order to successfully use a specific public API or technology. IMHO thus I can check both an applicant's writing skills and technical background. As the API usually represents an adopted standard all over the IT world (or at least its Java part:)), my company can hardly gain any decent benefits from the applicant's work.

Best regards,
Iliana Kostova

Chuck Martin wrote:


This question occurred to me recently. In all the interviews I've had over the years, in just one was I ever asked to take a writing test right there. (In that case, I was shown a section of existing documentation, asked some questions about the product, and was given 30 minutes to rewrite the content. I got that job.)

Sure, you can argue that writing samples should provide a good indicator of a technical writer's skills. And they are *an* indicator. But samples are the product (usually) of writing and editing cycles, sometimes by multiple team members. And because most documentation is not attributed, how can a reader know if it is really the writer's work?

Over the years I've seen some atrocious documentation. And I've seen some pretty bad non-documentation writing by people who are technical writers. So here's a fundamental question: Why don't more interviews for technical writers include a writing test, where a candidate demonstrates writing skills (or the lack thereof) on the spot?

The cynic in me answers that question with the thought that many interviews are conducted by HR folk or development managers, many of who wouldn't know good writing if it bit them in the *ss. Part of that sentiment come from knowing many people on many development teams who glow at the mere existence of printed words on paper without knowing if such words are of actual use to anyone.


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