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Hiring Technical Writers: the Siberian Way

Hiring Technical Writers: the Siberian Way

Sam Faktorovich

May 16, 2017
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  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
    [email protected]
    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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