ITauthor

I’ve just started the challenging task of hiring a new technical writer.

As a result I’ve been reviewing our interview process, researching what other bloggers have had to say on the subject and generally thinking about the challenge of getting the right person.

As chance would have it, Writer River dropped an email in my inbox on Monday with a relevant article: 
The Interview Question You Should Always Ask

This is one of those blog posts where the comments are as interesting as the actual article. The question referred to in the title (you might want to stop reading here and go and read the article first … no?, okay let’s continue) is “What do you do in your spare time?” I’ve never asked this question but I thought it was a good one. If an applicant says he/she writes a blog, contributes to open source documentation projects and creates instructional videos and posts them on YouTube, then they probably immediately elevate themselves into the contender bracket.

However, some of the comments warned of potential HR headaches, or nightmares, arising from asking this question.

I would never ask this question.
1) It might take you somewhere where you do not want to go:

What do you do in your spare time? - I sing in the choir at my church.
or
I take care of a disabled husband.
or
I meet with the therapist that is helping me to battle my addiction.

Another commenter added the following grim warning:

Should this candidate reveal something in their answer that could be viewed through the lens of being "protected", and you elect not to hire the candidate, you may find yourself spending significant time with your legal counsel.

This also made me think that maybe I should consider getting our HR person involved in the interview. I’ve always preferred not to have the HR person sitting in through the whole interview, but maybe I should, I’m not sure. I tend to think that HR problems generated from interviews (other than for internal candidates, which is a more complicated situation) has got to be more something that happens in the more litigious US, not here in the UK. But maybe this is an accident waiting to happen and we should be less easy-going/conversational in our approach to interviews, which would be a shame.

Some good resources on interviewing are:

• The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing (version 3.0) by Joel Spolsky
• Thoughts on Interviewing by Gordon McLean
• Interviewing by Gordon McLean
• 10 Alternate Tests for Evaluating Technical Writing Job Candidates — A List for Hiring Managers by Tom Johnson 
  This is another one where you really need to read through the comments.