The door to work in the software industry as a technical writer begins with a writing test which at time becomes most important for short listing the prospective candidate. The writing test being conducted by various companies to select the technical writers in to their fold most often fails some deserving writer. I am not sure how good the test is tested before it is administered to the prospective writers. As the test varies from companies to companies, its length and breadth to test the knowledge of candidates also increases manifold. Most of the time and places where I have gone for the interviews I failed to understand the mindset of the persons who sets the questions and to understand the real intent of some of the questions. To me, it looked, more often than not that it fails to evaluate the skills and knowledge of the prospective writers.
Writing the test for getting through the interviews reminds me of the academic days which forces you to memorize the subjects for scoring marks to get good grades. I understand and most of us have understood by now that academics have no truck with reality in life. We definitely look beyond that in the professional field to measure our real value in terms of analyzing our potential. But the state of testing a writer’s caliber to fit him in the software industry is not a truly professional story to narrate about. The writing test which is administered on the writers to get selected as technical writer is not true test of their skills. Mind you, this test is not aimed to judge the geniuses of your creative imagination. This test is aimed to know the ability to write procedures and instructions in simple and clear language applying the style guides what the industry follows.
The real skill of a writer is to write. Be it any piece of writing if you have the ability to write you can always learn the style and use that into your document. So, the real intent of the test should be to test the thinking ability of the person and the way thoughts are presented in grammatically correct sentences. But some of the question which are asked has no connect with the writing ability of the writer, it is purely intended to judge the English and grammar knowledge of the writer. The knowledge of grammar and English language are important for writing good English but at the same time writers are not expected to remember entire grammar. They need to know how to use them in the writing. The necessity of queens English for the king’s crown is definitely not desirable.
However, you will keep getting the questions, which will intend to test your knowledge beyond your writing ability. Some of the questions what I came across while writing different tests are as follows:
What is the long term goal of your life?
What is the short term goal of your life?
According to you what is the main hurdle of India’s growth?
What is dangling modifier? Explain it with example.
What is restrictive clause? Explain it with example?
What are parts of speech? Discuss all the parts of speech with example.
What are subject-verb agreements?
What are articles? Describe about different articles.
There may be many more questions which our other writer friends might have faced during the test and can vouch whether it is justified or not.
Some of the questions will be posed to test the knowledge of the tools you have used. The fact is, you need to know the tool to use for the documentation. Your past acquaintance would gain you some mileage but tools would not do the writing on your behalf. It is used for the presentation of your content. Some of the companies have realized lately that tools can be learned while you work on the product. And they have changed their approach in their selection procedure. Similarly, knowledge of process in software development is another desirable factor which is stressed. Whether you have worked on scrum methodologies or age old water fall methodologies does make some difference.
Some of the companies would try to test the domain knowledge of the writers. This is another indigestible fact because a writer who has not worked in some domain would not know even the basics of that domain. The job of technical writer is to get the knowledge from the stake holders of the product that includes subject matter experts, developer and architect and transform that knowledge into writing for the user. The writers are the flexible lot whose job is to learn the technology and domain knowledge on the job. The open mindedness and interest to learn new technology and new domain can let any writers do wonderful job. However, there would be definitely some exceptions, but exception can not be the general perception. As of now, it looks to me that the entire technical writing in India is driven by perception.
All this is done to siphon out the better writers from the good lot. But these tests are not always foolproof. The vivid example came into the light when ten of my ex-colleagues got into a mobile software technology company by virtue of scoring very high in their written test. The secret is one took the grind and let others know the answers in advance. All of them were not the great writers but their score made the interviewer believe in them. No one tried to find anything beyond that.
Giving the subjective tests also does not get you always the better part of a writer. Writing depends on the state of mind. The day when a writer is calm, composed and has clear thinking during the test, he/she might do a good job. If too many things are hovering through the mind, the distraction can lead them end up doing a bad job.
The blend of subjective writing exercise, some of earlier writing samples and a personal interview can give a fare idea about the capability of a writer. Moreover a writing exercise administered a day before the personal interview on two of the topics given by the interviewer in writer’s own time would also provide little more insight. Nevertheless, the judgment of a writer’s capability in an hours test is sheer eyewash. If you pass, its your sheer luck. If you fail, its your destiny. You do not know where the battle of your luck and destiny would take you.
