Basic Technical Editor Interview Preparation Guide

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Working with an author to ensure that the text clearly communicates their intended meaning, while respecting both the author's need to communicate in their own voice and the audience's need to understand.

Take the time to get into specifics about the tools that are vital to your projects. Pointed questions about software programs, for example, will give your candidate the chance to show their expertise or demonstrate areas where they are less familiar. Refer back to your job description to make sure you’re drilling your candidate on the most important tools for the position.

I like to write and I have been a technical writer for 7 years. I enjoy working in an environment where I can learn new tools, work on many different types of products and interact with different teams.
Learning new technology and new software and businesses.
I love to learn new stuff every now and then for which I interact with people and document it. I simply love my job.
Relaying information that is understood by many in short passages.

All writers make mistakes, but good writers should know how to catch them. Great candidates should have a proofreading strategy, whether it’s reading a printed copy, reading their piece aloud, or even reading the piece backwards.

In some organizations, technical writers are not respected as much as developers or QA. The management sees technical writing as just a chore and not as an asset to the team. I have had to work with managers who do not know how technical writers function and expect us to provide good quality documentation in highly impossible timelines.
People don't understand what exactly is a technical writers job and wants to finish highly sensitive work in impossible deadlines.

This is a question about judgment. Does the professional understand the difference between drawing on legitimate, thoroughly vetted sources like The New York Times or peer-reviewed journals, compared with unverified sources such as personal blogs?

Clarity and attention to detail.
I am very good listener, writer and creative too.
I pride in that I listen and try hard to achieve the goals set by the enduser.

I once warned an author that something he planned to do was unacceptable according to standard conventions in the scientific publishing business, and that he would inevitably be caught by his peers and lose considerable face as a result. He ignored my advice, and when my predictions proved to be correct, his anger (redirected at me) poisoned our relationship for many years afterwards.

Good candidates won’t just be great writers; they’ll also know the best practices for SEO, like using the right keywords in the right quantity, and adding hyperlinks to other pieces of content on your site as well as outside sources.

Great candidates should at least be familiar with a major style guide like the AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style. Consider it a flag if this question elicits no response or an “I play it by ear” response.

I'm more stubborn than any three mules you care to combine. As a result, I am relentlessly patient, polite and diplomatic, and respectful. Eventually, even the most difficult author admits defeat and accepts that I truly have their best interests at heart and that it's better to work with me than against me. On the other hand, I've also fired a few clients who simply weren't worth the hassle. Best thing about being a freelancer!

This question should give you an idea of what this writer is like to work with. While good content writers should be able to defend their choices, they should also be receptive to constructive feedback from their clients.

Every great writer has his or her own unique voice, but in the case of content writers, you want to make sure their voice aligns with your brand. Good candidates should familiarize themselves with the existing copy on your site and be able to speak confidently about it.

Yes. If yes, please describe your company’s procedure:

I work as a freelancer, so my procedure is my own. Even when I was a wage slave, I didn't use any levels of edit approach because I believe (and teach, when I teach editing) that as an editor, it's my responsibility to do whatever is required to produce a manuscript the author can be proud of and that the audience will understand. When time is constrained, I use triage as the basis for my levels of edit: I focus on the crucial problems (the ones that will kill understanding) before working on the merely important ones (the ones that will only impede understanding), and lastly I remove the blemishes (things worth fixing but that won't impede or kill understanding) if time permits. Most "levels of edit" systems I'm familiar with don't understand the importance of triage.

One of the most frequent issues our staffing clients have experienced before coming to us is invisible technical writers. Strong candidates work closely with teams to develop accurate and effective communication, rather than staying isolated in an office. Get a feel for how well your candidate will work with your team.

1. Dividing to my time with dead lines.
I like to set a time limit on myself in which I must complete directly at or before that time limit. By putting a time limit on myself, i'm putting pressure on myself and I work well under pressure.
I generally identify and understand the team and the delegate work according to their capabilities.

_____Yes, I always compliment authors.
_____Yes, I usually compliment authors, but not always.
_____Sometimes I compliment authors and sometimes I comment only on what needs to be improved (50/50).
_____Yes, I occasionally compliment authors, but more often I only comment on what needs to be improved.
___X__No, I never compliment authors; I only comment on what needs to be improved.

As noted above, I rarely compliment authors. However, I will often insert suggestions on points of interest that I feel would be worthy of additional exploration, whether in the present manuscript or a future one. It's always a pleasure to see that future manuscript written, though it's not always because of my advice. As an author myself, I appreciate kind words from an editor (Avon Murphy is a master of the art), but given how heavily I edit, I find it hard to write an overt compliment that would not seem deceptive or pro forma. The risk of jeopardizing my relationship with an author by being seen as untrustworthy is too high for me to scatter random compliments just to ease the sting of being edited.

This question is designed to give you a sense of how thoughtful a content writer is. Good writers should think both about the audience they’re writing for and also what the goal of the project is.

You want to make sure the content writer understands how their work aligns with your business strategy. Good answers might include the following: “Good content should inform and engage readers,” or “Good content drives clicks, pageviews, unique visitors, etc.”

_____Yes, always.
_____Yes, usually but not always.
_____Sometimes, 50/50.
_____Yes, occasionally.
__X___No, never.

Rarely to never. My philosophy is that I won't make a change unless it's necessary, and that it's the author's job to make those changes; if they disagree, they must decide whether I was simply wrong (that happens) or whether I'm right but they don't like the proposed solution. In the latter case, we work together to find a mutually satisfactory compromise.

☛ Can you please walk me thru your CV? (The interviewer can interrupt you, and ask you the question based on the information provided on your CV).
☛ Can you tell me about yourself?
☛ Why did you choose technical writing as your career?
☛ Have you done any certification course?
☛ What are the challenges faced by technical writer?
☛ Can you explain me the workflow of your current organization?
☛ What made you to hunt for a new job?
☛ Are you comfortable working extra hours?
☛ What are your achievement as a tech writer in your present organization?
☛ How will you add value to our organization?
☛ Different between CV and Resume?

☛ How do you start off a new project?
☛ What is the difference between content and copy?
☛ Which operating systems and tools do you work on?
☛ How do you proofread your content?
☛ Which blogs do you follow on a regular basis?
☛ What type of technical writing projects have you previously delivered?

☛ What interests you about being a technical editor for our industry?
☛ What measures do you take to improve your technical editing expertise?
☛ In as much detail as possible, describe a recent technical editing project you worked on.
☛ What software tools do you typically use?
☛ How quickly can you learn to use a new tool?
☛ What’s your role in developing project timelines?
☛ How much experience do you have with interviewing subject matter experts?
☛ How do you find talented technical writers for your team?
☛ What’s your approach to providing constructive criticism?
☛ How do you motivate your team to meet tight deadlines?
☛ Describe a time your client/project stakeholders gave you negative feedback. How did you handle it?

☛ How would you rate your writing skills? (Ask for an example that demonstrates great writing skills.)
☛ Share an experience in which you successfully shared a difficult piece of information. (Make sure that the candidate has open lines of communication.)
☛ Tell me how you organize, plan, and prioritize your work.
☛ Share an experience when you applied new technology or information in your job. How did it help your company?
☛ Give me an example of when you thought outside of the box. How did it help your employer?
☛ In your experience, what is the key to ensuring your company was compliant with all laws, regulations and standards that were applicable to your area of responsibility?
☛ Share an example of a time you had to gather information from multiple sources. How did you determine which information was relevant?
☛ Name a time when you identified strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions to problems. What was the impact?
☛ Please share an experience in which you presented to a group. What was the situation and how did it go?
☛ Provide an example of a time when you were able to demonstrate excellent listening skills. What was the situation and outcome?
☛ Share an experience in which your attention to detail and thoroughness had an impact on your last company.
☛ Provide a time when you worked in a rapidly evolving workplace. How did you deal with the change? (Make sure the candidate is flexible.)
☛ How do you balance cooperation with others and independent thinking? Share an example. (Try to determine if the candidate has a cooperative attitude or is otherwise good-natured.)
☛ Share an experience you had in dealing with a difficult person and how you handled the situation.

☛ Challenges faced during information gathering?
☛ List of publication tools you have worked?
☛ Different between Ms Word and Framemaker?
☛ Different between Structured Framemaker and Unstructured Framemaker?
☛ Different between XML and HTML?
☛ Can you explain me the process involved in DDLC?
☛ Can you explain me the process involved in SDLC?
☛ How do DDLC and SDLC work parallel?
☛ How do you estimate time for documentation?
☛ What is topic based authoring?
☛ How do you interview SME’s?
☛ Challenges faced during interviewing SME’s?
☛ Have you worked on UML? or What is UML (Unified Modeling Language)?
☛ Have you worked on Video Editing? (Ex: Camtasia)
☛ Could you show me your sample documents?
☛ Different between active voice and passive voice?
☛ Different between which and that?
☛ Different between its and it’s?
☛ Different between there and their?
☛ Types of clauses? What is restrictive clause and non-restrictive clause?
☛ Types of commas?
☛ What do you mean by callout?
☛ What process do you follow for translation?
☛ Overview on Robohelp and MS Word?
☛ What is text conditioning?
☛ Review process involved in technical writing?
☛ Different between User Manual and User Guide?
☛ Have you worked on API documentation? (Only asked, if the project is related to API Documentation).
☛ Have you published any article?
☛ When do we use Organise and Organize?
☛ Different between your and you’re?