Before we begin, remember that a face-to-face interview happens only when you have a resume compelling enough to draw your prospective employer’s attention amongst thousands others. This is one of the soundest advices on how to write your resume.

Demonstrable Experience

Mere experience is not enough. You need to demonstrate it during the interview. Use examples, real projects you worked on, and how that relates to that bullet point in your CV. Knowing something, being great at something is just half the battle won. The other half is showing it. This rather bizzare way of demonstrating experience landed this guy a job in Microsoft France.

An Interview is a Discussion

An interview is a discussion not an interrogation: make sure you talk to your interviewer as an equal. You’re not doing a favour to your prospective employer by joining there and vice versa. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Things like loyalty have to be earned by the company in just the same way as you need to earn your promotions and hikes.

Body language

You know the drill: maintain eye contact; stay relaxed; don’t shift too much; pay attention to posture and the rest of the jazz.

Clear articulation

Say what you want to say clearly. Speak slowly if you must. Clear articulation is a function of clear thinking. The more you punctuate your conversation with “you know,” “umm,” “huh,” “I mean,” “you see,” the faster you send the message that you suffer from lack of clarity of thought.

Back up everything

Don’t put something in your CV that you can’t justify: If you rate yourself as possessing “expert” level knowledge in Flash, be very sure you are an expert in Flash. If you include a long list of accomplishments for a prestigious and difficult project, be prepared to explain those accomplishments in detail.

Do your homework

Read up on the company. Read the job description carefully and read it a hundred times if that’s what it takes for you to understand it thoroughly. Ask intelligent questions about your role. I maybe generalizing a bit here but after some experience in applying for jobs, you’ll figure out that most job descriptions are poorly-worded and unclear. Here’s an unenviable example of a job description written in classical Martian:

If you’re looking for a new role where you’ll focus on one of the biggest issues that is top of mind for KT and Steve B in ‘Compete’, build a complete left to right understanding of the subsidiary, have a large amount of executive exposure, build and manage the activities of a v-team of 13 district Linux& Open Office Compete Leads, and develop a broad set of marketing skills and report to a management team committed to development and recognized for high WHI this is the position for you!”

Other time-honoured phrases of incomprehensible job descriptions: self-starter, self-motivated, team player as well as strongly independent, focussed, meets deadlines, builds an environment that supports cooperation and cohesiveness among the
work team… You don’t need to criticize this gibberish at the interview but rather cut through the gibberish and ask the interviewer what exactly all that means. This approach arms you with control over the interview.

Attitude, etc

Things like attitude are hard to quantify unless you go to the interview with a lit cigarette in your hand or stretch your legs on top of the desk or scoff at your interviewer’s questions. Only a very thin line separates confidence from arrogance. Confidence is answering a “silly” or “childish” question with a smile. Arrogance is “can we move on to the next topic already!”

Accept your faults and ignorance

You’ve heard this already but it’s worth repeating. Admitting that you don’t know or that you’re wrong is not a disqualifier. Making excuses or trying to cover up is. At worst, your ignorance and/or incorrect responses will not land that job but it’s better than coming out red-faced. In most cases, interviewers look for clues and demonstrable evidence of your competence, skills, and your approach to solving problems in the context of to the role you’ve applied for.

Ask Questions

Prepare a list of questions and take it with you to the interview. This is related to Do your homework mentioned above. It indicates well-preparedness and sends the message that you are genuinely interested in the role. Questions could be about anything, and there are stupid questions: asking a question about something that’s readily available on the company’s website qualifies as stupid. You’ll be able to think up intelligent and well-informed questions by looking at these sources: the job description, job descriptions put out by other companies for a similar role, the organization’s web site, your past and current experience in a similar role, and social media websites like LinkedIn.

That’s pretty much it.

Tags: Advice, Career, Interview Advice, Interviewing, Job Interviews, Tips for Interviewing

Oh yeah! Here goes.

Before we begin, the previous para is a very substandard illustration of a fancy technique of writing fiction: stream of consciousness, where you write down your thoughts as they occur. Now why am I saying this? In my rude guide, I wrote

…you primarily write to achieve technical and subject-matter accuracy and clarity. Your readers and/or reviewers’ primarily concern is whether you’ve achieved that and not so much for that wicked turn of phrase that you’ve introduced in the second para in the Overview of the Megaphone Connector for JDBC (Heading 1)…in other words, writing in this case, is subservient to technology/subject matter.

And now, back to the “much water has flowed” bit I just mentioned. Over the past month, I was witness to a fascinating discussion the details of which I shall spare you. It was a discussion centered around the (lack of) very basics of writing. Which is why I thought it’s time to re-examine the “writing in this case, is subservient to technology/subject matter” statement.

Problems in most human endeavours–I love it when I sound lofty–can be overcome if you abide by three factors:

1. Solid grounding in the fundamentals
2. Common sense
3. A penchant for not taking things literally

I know I’m sounding like I’m on a high horse talking down to ordinary mortals but indulge me, please. There! I said please. In all sincerity, let’s see how these factors apply in our context:

1. Solid grounding in the fundamentals of language/writing: I never tire of saying this: Technical Writing = Technical + Writing, where writing should be second nature to you. At the very least, writing mustn’t be an effort for you. If you plan to learn the parts of speech, articles, elementary sentence construction, and voices on the job, you’re probably considering a wrong career choice. Like I said, technical writing is not for everyone. Writing is not an optional skill for a technical writer.
2. Common sense: Cannot be defined although the dictionary says it is “exhibiting native good judgment (adj)” and “sound practical judgment (n).” Quite good but nobody can ever say what the judgment in question really is–it is entirely situational. Which is why the world abounds with helpful examples of what common sense is. I hate to do this to you but if you were given a lemon and presented with some choices would you rather squeeze it on your neighbour’s open wound or make lemonade or use it with Tequila (ha!)? Answer carefully. In much the same way, common sense dictates that if it takes you 37 steps to document a feature, you’d rather talk to your project team and simplify the interface. And because we’re talking about writing, common sense tells you that it’s a mistake to use figures of speech in a technical document: You cannot retrieve your files if you permanently empty the Recycle Bin just like trash once taken away by the garbage van cannot be recovered.
3. A penchant for not taking things literally: This is really a variation of #2 above. So when I say “much water has flowed,” you must not conjure mental images of water flowing underneath a bridge or something. The same thing applies for “I’m on on a high horse.” I’m a technical writer, not a jockey, for God’s sake. And so, when I say “writing in this case, is subservient to technology/subject matter” it doesn’t mean you take it literally: it just means that I assume that you possess above-average writing skills (ref:#1 above) when you call yourself a technical writer. If you call yourself a surgeon, remember that at the least I don’t expect you to use a butcher’s knife for performing surgery on me.

Actually this entire post is an exercise in stating the obvious but I suppose I haven’t stated it in vain.

Tags: Advice, Basics, Commonsense, Documentation, Language, Random Stuff, Tech Writing, Technical Writing, Writers, Writing

1. Love your job and if possible, your company.
2. Get the job done, titles subserve the job you do.
3. When trouble erupts, focus on resolving it instead of looking to blame.
4. If the work environment sucks, try to enliven it, then live with it, else get out quickly!
5. Critique the work, not the person.
6. Prohibit thyself from taking pleasure in doing #5.
7. Work, don’t please your boss.
8. If you have to fight for a hike or promotion, you are probably in the wrong company.
9. Processes are mere crutches: you need legs to walk.
10. Say it in English, not in bureaucratese.

Tags: Advice, Presumptuous Advice, Random Stuff, Tips to Succeed at Work, Worklife Credo

While I admit I’m given a bit to hyperbole, I have Emerson’s dictum about excesses and defects imprinted in my mind to actually implement my threat of unleashing unnecessary embellishment.

Thus, I actually think that a style guide is good.

But it is still a guide. It throws light on the path, it is not in itself the path. And which is where I narrate how I transformed my awe into a smile.

Without sounding too bitchy, pompous, or patronizing, I had this ex-colleague who fed on a diet of style guides. Microsoft Style for Technical Publications, Chicago Manual of Style, Sun whatisitcalled, Yale Style Manual, and assorted tomes gave this gentle soul the necessary proteins, carbs, starch, and fiber while I steadily grew weaker watching from the sidelines with open-mouthed awe. I realized painfully much later that this soul was learning to write using style guides. That cured me of the mindless affliction of over-reliance on style guides. It is like trying to learn how to solve a mathematical problem by referring to logarithmic tables.

At best a Style Guide gives you hints at proper usage, and dos and don’ts. All necessary, useful, and valuable. But it can’t predict the errors you might commit in your writing. That is your own burden and your own responsibility to lighten. And that task becomes easier if you read both widely and deeply, and read masters of prose, and practice.

While I’m still on the subject, do read the Economist’s Style Guide. It’s online, it’s free and contains plenty of sane advice. I specifically recommend memorizing the entire sections on tone and unnecessary words.

Best of all, read Hemingway.

Tags: Style Guide, Writing Advice, Language, Writing Well, Prose

It was once believed that nobody could teach writing. It was a gift you were born with. Great writers were born, not made. And such other generalizations. While there’s a grain of truth in each of these, experience has taught me that writing can be taught.

I wrote the way I did to prove a point. Read the preceding sentences and tell me which stands out as a really good example of bad prose.

Await more in my next post.

Although they belong to different writing genres, I recommend every technical writer to read the Minimalist Master, Hemingway. To learn the art of telling details in precis form. With no injury to either form or content.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a case in point. The longest sentence in the story is also the only detailed description of a surrounding where the early part of the story is set.

They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace where the tables were all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind.

Read that aloud for its “sound quality.” Tell me if you found yourself helplessly submitting to its power of placing those empty tables right in front of you. And then the minimalism in action. Here.

…took a leathercoin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip.

Up to till point in the story, Hemingway leaves us no hint of the country where the story takes place. With nothing more than a Peseta tip, he tells us we are in Spain.

But these are just a few reasons why I love Hemingway. Read the complete story. Re-read it. Study the process of attaining that perfect state where art and craft lose themselves in each other. If this doesn’t convince you, mull on what James Joyce says about this story:

He [Hemingway] has reduced the veil between literature and life, which is what every writer strives to do. Have you read ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’?…It is masterly. Indeed, it is one of the best short stories ever written…”

It would thrill my soul if one of you better-informed guys started a discussion of sorts.

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.