The technical writing interview – Part 1

Congratulations, you got the interview! So, how do you prepare for it? You are going to prepare for it, right?

Preparation matters

One of two fates will befall you if you don’t prepare for your interview. When a question is asked, especially something open ended…

• You have nothing to say and meander around searching for the right words to use, or the right story to tell. There are awkward silences throughout the interview. You lose confidence, and your interviewers have the feeling you lack communication skills in general. You also come off as someone who really doesn’t know their subject well.
• You won’t stop talking, but get off topic easily, sometimes even forgetting the question. You waste everyone’s time, and by the end, some of the most important questions were skipped due to lack of time. You might come off as flighty, and unfocused. You also come off as someone who really doesn’t know their subject well.

On the other hand, if you prepare, your answers will be concise and accurate. You will have evidence for every claim you make, and will come off as someone who has deep insight into your line of work, the company, and this position. You also sound confident when you speak. 

So, how should you prepare for the interview? 

Write it out

It is imperative that you write this out. I use Google Docs, but use anything you like. My notes in preparation for my last interview, from which I got my job offer with Amazon, was 23 pages long.

Write out answers to the following questions, abundant notes, and more. Then go over them again and again, rewriting sections, and adding to your document. As the interview approaches, read it from beginning to end every day for at least 3-5 days, so answers come to mind easily in an interview.

Questions you must be prepared for

These questions come up all the time in interviews, and there is no excuse for not being prepared for them.

Tell us about yourself

Another way to ask this is, “Why don’t you introduce yourself.”

For this question, write out a short, one paragraph summary of you. You might include:

• Married? Kids? No need for names.
• Where you grew up, lived, went to college.
• A few hobbies.

Do not start telling stories here. They didn’t really come to hear personal stories of your life, and time is precious. Just give them enough so they know you are human and have interests.

What are your strengths? 

Start with a list and then narrow it down. If you can’t think of anything, ask a friend or previous coworker. Once you have a list, narrow it down to your strongest traits, as well as those you know would be the most highly sought after for the job. For example: You have a couple of strong traits. You are very personable, able to start conversations easily. But you are also an excellent writer, with a degree in English and have done a lot of editing for publications. In this case, I would stress your writing rather than how personable you are, since it fits the main job qualifications better.

Write a list of strengths, but have a good top three ready for the interview.

What is one weakness you have?

This is always tricky. You want something that is true, but you don’t want to sound like a bad fit for the job. You also don’t want to sound like you don’t take the question seriously. “Sometimes I get sidetracked by learning the tech side of the job, and I have to focus again to get the writing done.” On the other hand, maybe yours would be, “I like my writing to be perfect, so sometimes I probably spend too much time getting every sentence just right.” Perhaps these aren’t too bad, especially the first one. There are lots of great articles online about how to come up with good weaknesses in interviews. I won’t belabor it here.

Why do you want to work at this company?

You’ll need to know what this company does and what makes them unique. I’ll talk more about background research later. Just make sure you know why you would want to work here compared to all the other companies out there. Make sure your answer makes them also feel good about what they do. “Because you are the largest manufacturer of silicon wafers in the country, and the industry has always interested me.” Another answer might be, “I love your motto that you want to be ‘the world’s most customer-centric company.’ ”

Why do you want this particular job?

Know why you like this line of work. Since we’re talking about technical writing, usually something about how much you enjoy technology, and also love to write would be appropriate. Also, how you love to learn new things, or be on the cutting edge of technological breakthroughs. You may mention your dual loves of coding and writing, if you know how to do both. These are just suggestions, but good ones you can use.

What is one of your greatest accomplishments?

This might also be worded, “What are you most proud of?” While you could talk about raising your two children, it might benefit you more if you can relate it to the job more. You could say, “I created an app in C++ that has been forked on GitHub over 200 times.” Or, “I helped write and publish a book on distributed computing last year.” Those are big ones, but it could be something like, “I wrote a tutorial for how to make a simple game in JavaScript.”

If you have had even part-time or volunteer work as a technical writer in the past, you can mention a project you worked on. Maybe you wrote a white paper, or created a website.

Do you have any questions for us?

This is almost universal, and you should be ready with a reply. It’s often the last part of the interview. Don’t ask about pay. It’s not time yet. Also, don’t tell them how much you’ve made in the past, or how much you expect in this job. 

If nothing comes to mind, what I use most is, “When will I hear from you about the results?” Then I slyly add, “I’ll be doing other interviews as well, so I want to know when I’ll hear from you.” It’s even better if you have an interview coming up and can say that you have an interview on Tuesday and want to know when they’ll give you their decision. 

One, this might speed up the process, because maybe if they don’t hurry, you’ll be gone with the first offer. Two, because it gives the feeling you are in demand, and they’d better move on this because other companies are starting to realize your value already.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to ask questions that you probably could have just looked up, like how many people are in the company, where you’d be working, what their top product is, etc. 

Background research

You should be good at this, since a lot of technical writing involves research. First research the company. Find their website and peruse it thoroughly.

• What do they do or make? 
• How did they start? 
• Who started the company? 
• Who is the CEO now? 
• Have they been in the news lately? Why?
• What are they focused on right now as a company?
• What are some of their most popular products?

Write out all these things and more. Then memorize it.

Behavioral interview questions

Behavioral interview questions are very common in technical writing interviews. They have to do with what you have done when you were in a certain situation, or what you would do in that situation. Questions are usually in the form of “What did you do when…? or “What would you do if…?” Work through these kind of scenarios ahead of time and write down your answers so you are ready. You can find lists of common behavioral questions online.

Common questions might include:

• What would you do if you had two managers who are giving you conflicting directives?
• What if you asked an SME (subject matter expert) a question in email, but they wouldn’t respond?
• What do you do if you have too many projects that are all due at the same time?

How do they hire?

Some companies have very specific kinds of people they are looking for. For instance, I recently read a post by someone who had worked at both Google and Amazon. They stated that both companies do their hiring with different overarching questions. Google asked, “How smart are you?” Whereas Amazon asked, “What have you done?” These are very different takes on what they are looking for.

Many of these companies have philosophies of hiring as well, or ways they go about it. Amazon uses the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Google has certain Googleyness questions (thrives on ambiguity, values feedback, effectively challenges status quo, puts the user first, does the right thing, cares about the team), so you should prepare with those in mind. 

Write out all your experiences, skills, and accomplishments, and put them in these categories. Use the company’s framework to put your expertise into perspective. Spend a lot of time here, because these are the criteria the company uses when hiring. If you have limited, or no experience, insert your skills instead, or projects you created for your portfolio. Show that you meet every area of their requirements.

What’s their culture like (tenets, values, etc.)?

What philosophy guides their decisions? What’s their vision? What are their core values? What do they say about their culture? Copy these from their website and write out how all of your experiences fit in this list. Write down stories, maybe even from other unrelated industries, in the right section of the list. Write what values you like the most and why?

Amazon uses these leadership principles. Google says, “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They also have the value of Googleyness, which I mentioned before.  

Meta (formerly Facebook), says for their culture: Move Fast. Be Bold. Be Yourself. If you want to know all of what they mean by that, I’m sure there’s a lot on their website about it.

Who are your interviewers?

If you are told ahead of time who will be interviewing you, see if you can find out a little about them online. I don’t mean to cyberstalk them. Don’t be creepy. Go ahead and find someone on LinkedIn, but don’t try to connect with them before the interview. Just see what is important to them. What’s their job title? Where are they an expert? Maybe get an idea of their personality. 

Mine the job description

To prepare, copy and paste the job description into your document. Read it carefully for everything they’re searching for in a candidate. For each item they want, write your skills and experience that relate to that next to the item. Then go to the next one on the list. You know this is what they’re looking for, so make it clear that you fit all, or most, of the things on the list.

That’s it for Part 1. A lot of qualified people don’t get the job because they have neglected to do their homework. Once everything is written out, revise it over and over, and also read what you have written at least once a day for several days leading up to the interview. Then relax and do your best. You’ve got this!