questions for the interviewer (tech writing)

[cellio]

Somebody on a tech-writing mailing list just asked what kinds of questions we tend to ask interviewers when we're interviewing for jobs. The person had already mentioned, specifically for hardware-related jobs:

• Do you test the documentation? How?
• How does legal review work (for things like liability)?
• Availability of subject-matter experts for reviews?

Here's what I wrote in response:

My experience is in software, which might be different from hardware, but I always want to know:

• How early and in what way are writers involved in development? Do writers participate in functional and design reviews? Do we have input into the user interface? Are we part of the team, or do we come in later, take what they've built, and document it?

• Can I use the product? As much as I want?

• What processes do both the dev and doc teams follow? (If they say "agile" there are more questions.) How is doc reviewed and by whom?

• (How) do we make doc improvements that aren't directly tied to new features or bugs? (For example: larger reorganizations, improving indexing, adding runnable examples, tools improvements.)

• (How) do you use source control for documentation?

That's off the top of my head, without digging out my notes from my last round of interviews.

So that's not a complete list either, but these are the kinds of things I tend to be thinking about. (I also try to find out if I have access to the source code, but since he was asking about hardware I didn't bring that up.)

I also want to know where the documentation group is placed, organizationally speaking, but I usually learn that indirectly.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

This is related to your first question, but not quite the same: How much access will the writers have to the developers? Can we contact them directly, or do we have to do through channels?

[cellio]

Good point. For me, my question acts as a screen; if writers aren't part of the development process, if they're just seen as this extra function that comes in later after things are finished and dev has moved on, then I'm not going to take the job anyway. So usually my concerns about access when I need answers will come up in that discussion, but if that factor isn't as important to others, they'll need to ask about it explicitly. I've seen organizations where writers have trouble getting the right developers to talk with them in a timely manner, and that stinks.