Re: Interview questions (Was re: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)

Subject: Re: Interview questions (Was re: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)
From: Jason Willebeek-LeMair <jlemair -at- ITEXCHSRV2 -dot- PHX -dot- MCD -dot- MOT -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 11:32:36 -0700

Marie,

Then why don't you simply ask them "How would you rate your ability
to...handle multiple tasks? ...proofread your own work? " and so on.

By simply asking what their weaknesses are, you ARE turning the interview
into a game. And the contestant wins by guessing what you are looking for.

One of my weaknesses is proofing my own material. But, I have found ways to
compensate for it. So, if you asked for weaknesses, I might not bring it up
(hey, it's compensated for, so it is no longer a weakness, right?). But, if
you asked how I would rate myself in this area, I would probably say
something like "Not so good, but I make up for it by blah, blah, blah," and
you would have found what you are looking for (sorry, your method won't
work in our environment, or, how creative, you'd be perfect).

If you are looking for something specific in an interview, ask. I'm a
writer, not a psychic.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: Marie C. Paretti [mailto:mparetti -at- RRINC -dot- COM]
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 1999 9:23 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Interview questions (Was re: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie
a shoe)


At 07:27 AM 1/13/99 -0500, John wrote:
>I'd have to disagree on that one. The interviewer, in my view, is not
asking
>"What's your biggest weakness" in
>order to give me an opportunity to make myself look good. He/she is asking
>in an attempt to trip me up, or
>perhaps as a way of gauging how I will react to ridiculous situations.
>

As an interviewer, I have a different take, John. I'm neither trying to
trip you up or gauging how you will react to ridiculous situations. I
really want to know what you think your weaknesses are, for several reasons:

First of all, this is a small company with an even smaller tech comm
department, and people will ask you to do anything and everything. Unless
you are able to sort out what you can do from what you can't do (in terms
of both time and ability), you'll be overwhelmed and you'll end up wasting
valuable time. And if I see from your resume and our conversation that
you're a really great writer and hire you, but then learn that one of your
biggest weaknesses is that you tend to need a lot of supervision and you
have a hard time managing multiple tasks, then I'm sunk because those
skills are essential to working in a small company like this.

Second, there are lots of different tech comm tasks to be done, and unless
I know which ones you're best at and which ones you're worst out, I won't
necessarily know how to use you most productively. Yes, your strengths and
your resume tell me that in part, but I may assume that because you can do
X you can also do Y, when in fact Y is something you're not good at. That
doesn't mean I'll never ask you to do Y, but at least I'll know that Y may
take you longer.

Finally, as someone else's answer suggested, I want to know how you plan to
compensate for your weaknesses - you may not be good at proofreading your
work, but you've learned that you need to do abc in order to get a polished
product out the door. That tells me that you have a realistic assessment of
your own abilities plus you're able to work outside your comfort zone and
address the problem. If you tell me you're not good at proofreading so you
never do it, then I'll suspect that I can't give you tasks you're not
comfortable with even though they need to be done.

To me, an interview is not a game - whether I'm the interviewer or the
interviewee. It's a way to get information that I can't get/give from a
piece of paper. I ask questions because I want to know, and I answer them
because I assume the person asking them wants to know.


From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=



Previous by Author: Paragraph Marks
Next by Author: Re: Interview questions
Previous by Thread: Re: Interview questions (Was re: Tech Writing 101 - How to tie a shoe)
Next by Thread: Re: filler: techie help needed


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads