Hiring Technical Writers: the Siberian Way

A talk at Write The Docs Portland (http://www.writethedocs.org/conf/na/2017/), May 16, 2017

Drop me a line:

sam.faktorovich@gmail.com
http://linkedin.com/in/sfactor
http://twitter.com/lazeez

Transcript

1. Hiring technical writers:
   the Siberian way
   Sam Faktorovich
   Novosibirsk, Russia
   

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4. Novosibirsk: the Silicon Taiga
   

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7. Programmer Technical writer
   Project manager
   

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8. Number of technical writers in a company
   Time
   1
   Important evolution point
   0
   

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9. Why set up internal documentation?
   To improve the speed of knowledge transfer
   inside the company
   

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10. Integration/architecture docs
    • Strictly internal!
    • Implementation details important for integration w/other components
    • Usage limitations and constraints
    • Design decisions and their rationales
    • ....
    

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11. • How is the component built?
    • Why was it built this way?
    • Why should all this matter to you?
    Integration/architecture docs
    

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12. Necessary skills for technical writers
    • Technical stuff
    • CS fundamentals (algorithms, design patterns...)
    • Linux specifics (processes, threads, IPC, networking...)
    • Knowledge of С++ (reading code is important)
    • Capability and willingness to write documentation
    

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13. Necessary skills for technical writers
    • Technical stuff
    • CS fundamentals (algorithms, design patterns...)
    • Linux specifics (processes, threads, IPC, networking...)
    • Knowledge of С++ (reading code is important)
    • Capability and willingness to write documentation
    x4
    

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14. Number of technical writers in a company
    Time
    1
    Another important
    evolution point
    0
    2
    3
    

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15. Software job market in Novosibirsk (circa 2013)
    • Population: 1,500,000
    • 13 universities
    • ~500 software companies
    • ~1000 job openings for programmers per month
    

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16. Tech writing job market in Novosibirsk (circa 2013)
    • Zero job openings for tech writers
    • Zero tech writers actively searching for a job
    • ~10 tech writers total in a 1.5M+ city
    • No universities producing technical communicators
    

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17. Prior experience as a technical writer
    should not be required
    

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18. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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19. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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20. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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21. Technical skills Textual skills
    ???
    

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22. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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23. No prior experience as a technical writer
    Pre-interview writing assignment
    Either technical background OR good writing skills
    

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24. Results (from 2013 to 2017)
    • 120 candidates (120 assignments received)
    • 40 interviews
    • 6 hires
    • 4 persons working as of 2017
    

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25. Technical skills Textual skills
    120 candidates total
    

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26. Technical skills Textual skills
    2 candidates, both hired
    120 candidates total
    

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27. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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28. Technical skills Textual skills
    60 candidates
    

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29. Technical skills Textual skills
    60 candidates
    2 hires
    

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30. Knowing how to write well
    ≠
    knowing how to teach others to write well
    

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31. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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32. Technical skills Textual skills
    60 candidates
    

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33. Technical skills Textual skills
    60 candidates
    2 hires
    

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34. Teaching technical things to non-tech people
    • CS fundamentals turned out to be teachable!
    • Lots of teaching materials publicly available (books, online courses...)
    • Fundamental technical knowledge is easily transferrable
    • 2-month crash course did the job
    

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35. Teaching a good writer to code is easier
    than teaching a good coder to write
    

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36. Technical skills Textual skills
    

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37. Technical skills Textual skills
    Hire these and teach them later
    

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38. Pre-interview assignment task
    • Write a medium-sized (1-2 pages) text describing a complex technical topic
    • Topic defined by us
    • 2-3 weeks to complete the task
    • Use any information sources you like
    

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39. Pre-interview assignment task
    • Should not mimic our typical day-to-day documents
    • Should show the candidate’s capability to explain complex things
    

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41. “[The] documentation must teach.
    You should think of your documentation as a lesson
    (or series of lessons) because that’s what it is.”
    

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42. Explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS
    to a non-technical owner of an e-commerce website.
    

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43. Explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS
    to a non-technical owner of an e-commerce website.
    Explain the difference between UTF-8 and UTF-16
    to a programmer who is unaware of Unicode concepts.
    

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44. Our team, from 2013 to 2017
    Major/background Tech skills Text skills
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Computer Science ✓
    Physics ✓
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Liberal Arts ✓
    Mathematics ✓
    

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45. Our team, from 2013 to 2017
    Major/background Tech skills Text skills
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Computer Science ✓
    Physics ✓
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Computer Science ✓ ✓
    Liberal Arts ✓
    Mathematics ✓
    

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46. Hiring “technical” technical writers: other approaches
    

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47. Hiring “technical” technical writers: other approaches
    • Recruit your own developers to be technical writers? No
    • Grow the job market itself? Yes
    

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48. Hiring “technical” technical writers: other approaches
    • Recruit your own developers to be technical writers? No.
    • Grow the job market itself? Yes
    

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49. Hiring “technical” technical writers: other approaches
    • Recruit your own developers to be technical writers? No.
    • Grow the job market itself? Yes
    

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50. Hiring “technical” technical writers: other approaches
    • Recruit your own developers to be technical writers? No.
    • Grow the job market itself? Yes!
    

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51. Growing the job market
    • Technical writing class in one of local universities
    • Public lectures promoting the profession of a technical writer
    • Technical writing bootcamps
    • Corporate consulting on setting up documentation departments/processes
    

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52. Growing the job market
    • 2013: Zero technical writer job openings per month
    • 2017: 6-10 technical writer job openings per month
    

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53. Summary
    • “Technical” technical writers are rare: hire good writing talent first
    • Evaluate the writing talent by checking how they explain things
    • Teaching a good writer to code is easier than teaching a good coder to write
    • Grow the market: it’s beneficial for everyone
    

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54. Thanks!
    Sam Faktorovich
    sam.faktorovich@gmail.com
    linkedin.com/in/sfactor
    @Lazeez
    Drop me a line if you need some advice/consultations on building
    a documentation team or setting up documentation processes
    

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