Technical Writing Interview and Negotiation
December 17, 2004 by John Hewitt · 7 Comments
Technical Writing Job Interview
My face-to-face interview with the company was similar to my phone interview. So similar, in fact that more than once I found myself answering the same questions I had answered over the phone. They did throw a couple curve balls at me, however. The strangest question I was asked was, “If we called your references, what would they say about you?” I was unprepared for this one, and I ended up talking more about my references than about what they would say about me.
My basic statement, however, was one that I have used before. “Once I take on a project, I am very committed to it. I will fight for a project, often to the consternation of those around me.” This isn’t the most positive thing I can say about myself, but I don’t like to walk into an interview and give people a false impression either. I discussed how I handle situations. I told them I’ve camped in people’s cubicles to make them give me the information I need and I’ve gone to managers when I felt people weren’t cooperating. I told them that if they are looking for someone who is always tactful and compliant, I may not be right for their project.
Apparently they weren’t too scared off by my answers. They gave me two “take-home” tests (I could have done them there) to prove I knew what I was doing. The first was a general test of FrameMaker skills, and the second was an editing test. I found both tests to be pretty easy and I emailed the tests back the next morning. Less than an hour after I sent them the tests, I got a call telling me I was hired.
Technical Writing Contract Negotiation
I had already agreed on a rate for this job ($25 an hour) and so I was surprised when my recruiter called and said she wasn’t able to get me that rate. Just as I was about to panic, she revealed that they were actually going to pay me $30 an hour. Why did they raise it? I haven’t a clue. They had me at $25.
There were some contract negotiations, however. Most of the contract was fine except for clause 14:
Failure of the employee to report for work at the date, time and location above specified shall constitute a breach of this contract and the employee shall be SUBJECT TO LIQUIDATED DAMAGES IN THE SUM OF $5,000.00, payable to ____.
The clause is not as unreasonable as it seems at first. Once a consulting company commits to a contract, they assume a financial responsibility for that person showing up to work but there was no way I would agree to the contract unless the clause itself referred to a specific date and time when I was to show up. I “discussed” this with them over a series of phone calls that went all the way to the president of the consulting company and I finally got my way.
After that was settled, I signed the contract, a non-disclosure form, a criminal background check release, and direct deposit forms. Because the consulting firm is in Dallas, All of this had to be done long distance. There’s a good chance I will never meet my recruiter or account manager in person. This did create a problem at one point, when one of my faxed contract pages went missing and I had to go through my papers and fax the page again.
How a Technical Writing Phone Interview Works
December 15, 2004 by John Hewitt · 4 Comments
The First Recruiter Contact
The process started when a technical recruiter contacted me. During the late nineties, when technical jobs were easier to find, I often got four or five calls a week from recruiters when I posted my resume, but calls had been less frequent since the crash. In the previous month, however, I had talked to about five recruiters who submitted my resume for jobs in Phoenix, Tucson, Minnesota and North Carolina. The Phoenix position was the only one that progressed into an interview with the actual client.
When I originally spoke to the recruiter on the phone, she gave me a brief description of the job and asked for my rate. We negotiated the rate for a few minutes and came up with an acceptable number ($25 an hour) and she sent me an e-mail with the full job description and a short agreement asking me to confirm her representation and my rate. I sent back my confirmation and that was it for a while.
I read the job description but did not study it in depth because I have found that (even when business is good) I usually get to the interview stage about once per every five or six recruiter calls. This recruiter happened to represent a company I had worked for in the past. Since working for them, I had received several other calls from recruiters concerning that company. It is a huge corporation and opportunities come up regularly, but no recruiter had actually gotten me an interview since my last contract and I expected very little.
Preparing for the Phone Interview
The process moved forward when I received a call from the recruiter asking if I was still interested in the position and if I would be available for a phone interview. Phone interviews are quite common in contracting situations. Companies often are not willing to spend the time to bring in each applicant and interview him or her for what is essentially a short-term position (this position was scheduled to last three to six months). About half the companies I have contracted for hired me based solely on a phone interview.
I confirmed I would do the interview and she again emailed the job description to me. This time, I pasted the text of the description into Microsoft Word and used it as a preparation tool for the interview. The job listing asked for knowledge of hardware and of three desktop publishing applications (FrameMaker, Word and Acrobat). I wrote a series of short answers in case they asked about any of the products. As I read the project description, I added a brief account of a similar project I had worked on. I also wrote down the name of my previous supervisor at the company conducting the interview, just in case they asked. At the bottom of the job description, I added some questions to ask the interviewers. It is always good to have a couple questions. It shows them you are interested in the project.
I did not necessarily expect to look at these notes, but writing them helped me think about how to approach the interview. I charged up my cell phone and closed my door so the room would be quiet for the interview. I then reviewed the company web site and looked for specific information on the project. Unfortunately, there was very little information on the site.
The Phone Interview
The call lasted about 25 minutes. Two people, the department publications manager and the project leader, interviewed me. They began by describing the project in detail. After a few questions, I realized that this was a very straightforward project. All they wanted was someone to update the legacy documentation to include new specifications. There was going to be very little editing and no comprehensive editing; they simply wanted someone to update the documents.
The tricky part of the project was that some of the original documentation files were missing. While PDF files were available for everything, some of the original FrameMaker and Microsoft Word files would be unavailable. They needed someone with Adobe Acrobat experience who could directly edit PDF files. I have done this before, so I told them about a previous project that involved working directly with PDF files. Additionally, we discussed my web site, which I use as a general sample of my writing. I also provided them with a link to a hardware manual I had written for another company.
Samples are an important part of the technical writer’s resume. Almost every company asks for them, although I am convinced that very few take the time to read them. For this reason, the format of your samples is important. Make sure they look good, because the writing may be less important than the look and feel of the overall document.
One of the key questions I always ask at an interview is how many other candidates the interviewers are meeting. I like to get a feel for what my chances are, and the answer to this question is usually enlightening. In this case, the interviewers seemed to want to avoid answering the question. They eventually admitted that I was the only candidate they had scheduled. Apparently, the last writer they interviewed turned down the position. Now, the company was in a hurry. Their project was near deadline.
I could have been unhappy that they did not come to me first, but I chose to look at the bright side. Unless the interviewers did not like me, I had the job. I became sure of this when the interviewers asked me if I would be available to meet at their offices the next day.
