Re: Agency and interviewing questions

["Nancy B. Delain" <nbdelain -at- ALBANY -dot- NET>]

>>From Krista van Laan:
I knew a guy who had never written a word and used that line.
He got the job, too. Yes, the employer could have called his references,
but in my experience, they rarely do.<<

That is the employer's problem, not the writer's. In not disclosing work
done for former employers, any writer is behaving appropriately; it is up
to the employer to determine if the line is a scam. Usually, in my
experience, it's not. But then, I do check.

Personally, I would hire (and have hired, never getting burned by doing so)
writers in a heartbeat if they use that line, **and if their references
check out**.

>>Even if you have signed a nondisclosure agreement, does that still
apply to manuals that have been published and are for sale to the
customer through the customer service center? What about published
manuals that were written for products that are out of date? I show these
kinds of samples all the time and have never even dreamed there
would be a problem with something like that.<<

I still check with the document owner. It is, after all, THEIR document,
not mine, even if I did design, write, edit and maintain it, and eventually
sent it into document oblivion.

Nancy Baum Delain
Delain Associates

>Nancy Baum Delain wrote:

>> One way to tell if someone is worth interviewing without a writing sample
>> is to ask for the writing sample and wait for the response. If the
>> contractor says something like, "I'm sorry, but I have signed a
>> confidentiality agreement," you can bet that contractor will have just as
>> much respect for your stuff as for any former clients'. If, however, they
>> produce writing samples, you may want to think twice about hiring them.
>>
>Maybe. I knew a guy who had never written a word and used that line.
>He got the job, too. Yes, the employer could have called his references,
>but in my experience, they rarely do. There are so many legal issues
>regarding past personnel that the references don't usually have much
>to say beyond the dates a person worked.

>Even if you have signed a nondisclosure agreement, does that still
>apply to manuals that have been published and are for sale to the
>customer through the customer service center? What about published
>manuals that were written for products that are out of date? I show these
>kinds of samples all the time and have never even dreamed there
>would be a problem with something like that.

>I would think that most applicants are able to produce real samples.
>And when I am hiring, I expect to see some. I can understand
>respecting someone's confidentiality agreement, but the idea
>that an interviewer should think twice about hiring someone
>who does show samples is really interesting!

>However, I _would_ be hesitant to give a sample to an agency for one
>reason. I like to show complete manuals that I have written from
>beginning to end. I think this presentation is much nicer and
>gives a more accurate picture than do a few photocopied pages.
>But whenever I give these manuals to anyone, I never see them
>again. So now I save them for the interviews.

>===================================================================
>Krista Van Laan
>Nokia Telecommunications        Phone:  358 9 5112 3684
>P.O. Box 33                     Fax:    358 9 5112 3876
>02601 Espoo Finland             Email:  krista -dot- vanlaan -at- ntc -dot- nokia -dot- com