If you are advanced enough to be truly discerning (four years' experience or more), we recommend that you learn all you can about the company's expectations, your manager, your colleagues and the stresses and politics that come with every position before you take it. The following are some appropriate questions to ask of a potential employer during your interview if you want to learn more about how you might fit, both professionally and personally. (Also, see our article entitled Questions to Ask Your Colleagues-to-be.)

Note to shy persons: We know, these questions may feel awkward to ask. We suggest you weigh that awkwardness against how you will feel employed by a company whose processes, politics, and culture are incompatible with your work style. Success at a high-tech company is at least 50% personality —  your skills will get you the interview, but good chemistry is what gets and keeps you the job.

These links represent a list of relevant concerns. Click on the link to go to the section that contains suggested questions:
 

Who am I working with?

• I would appreciate knowing more about you. Would you please describe your background?
• How do you see your role (as a publications manager)? What are your responsibilities to your group?
• (If you're speaking with your potential manager) How would you characterize your management style? What would you say are your strengths as a manager?
• How many people report directly to you?
• Who's the typical audience for your products?
• Who are your major customers, and how many are there?
• How do you find out what your customers want and need in documentation?
• What kinds of documentation do you deliver? What do you consider the strengths and weaknesses of each? Do you have plans to do things differently in the future?
• Describe your typical documentation cycle. How early does the technical writer usually get involved?
• What publishing tools do you use?
• Describe and prioritize the average (Junior/Intermediate/Senior/Lead) Technical Writer's responsibilities?
• Please tell me about your documentation review process.
• May I see the software, documentation, and style guide that I would be working with?
• Which of my current skills do you consider most appropriate for the kind of work you need done?

• What do you look for in the ideal technical writer? Which characteristics are most important?
• Do writers here get more credit for how technical they are or for how well they write?
• Is tools knowledge more important than understanding the user's needs and being able to organize information to meet those needs?
• Are you looking for a writer who follows orders and delivers - no matter how unrealistic the demands - or one who does their best but also insists on sane schedules, mutual commitment to deadlines, and appropriate attention to process?
• Is it okay for a new writer to not yet know the company's subject matter or marketplace?

• What evidence do you have that this company's documentation is helping the user?
• When the documentation can't help the user, what or who does?
• In your experience, is product quality pursued and taken seriously here? (If so, how? If not, why not?)
• What relationship does customer service have with technical publications department?
• Does tech pubs help customer service by reducing the number of calls they get? How do you know?
• Is the tech support bug and/or call-tracking database accessible to writers? (If not, why not?)

• Do you feel the tech pubs team's efforts/products are respected?
• Do you think writers get less respect than engineers here? If so, why?
• Do subject matter experts (SMEs) respect writers' ability to organize and present information, or do they tend to tell them how to write as well as what to write?
• What kinds of incentives are in place to motivate people to go above and beyond the call of duty?

• How is the writer's working relationship with developers? Are writers able to query developers until they thoroughly understand a subject without them getting mad, impatient, or condescending?
• In what ways are developers motivated to help writers produce accurate and usable documentation? (If none, are changes underway?)
• Do developers listen to writers' suggestions on those occasions when the problem isn't with the document but with the software or interface design?

• How do you train new writers?
• Has your group had onsite training? In what?
• Will I receive training on tools, technologies, and methodologies to improve my performance?
• Will the company cover the cost of seminars and conferences that are directly applicable to my work, and give me time to attend these events?
• Does the company sponsor or otherwise support memberships in STC or similar professional development organizations?

• Give me an example of how you have dealt successfully with major change. What happened to the last person who held this position? Why?
• Do you create manuals yourself any longer or do you primarily manage those who do?
• What was your position before you were a manager?
• Do tech writers here have a style guide? If so, who created it? When was it last updated?
• Do writers edit their own work, or are professional editors available? If so, how many editors are there per writer?
• If there are editors on staff, have there been disputes between writers and editors? If so, how have you managed them? If not, how would you manage them?
• How do you keep in touch with your writers' progress?
• Do you ever use production specialists or illustrators?
• Do writers have input in designing the UI?
• Does the company produce context-sensitive online help, or just HTML-based online documentation? Are there plans to migrate to HTML-based online help?
• How often does this company have point releases?
• Do you participate in scheduling software development projects? Do your build schedules include UI freeze dates?
• What do you do when you feel your group isn't given enough time to produce the desired deliverables?
• How many hours a week are people in your group currently working? How many hours would you like for them to be working?
• Is anyone currently working from home? Is working from home an option?

• How would you characterize the relationship between Technical Publications and Engineering/QA/Tech Support/senior management?
• Where do you see potential conflicts between Technical Publications and other departments in the company?
• Is communication evolving in the company? Does management take seriously the task of improving communication? Is management winning or losing this effort?
• How long have you reported to your current boss?
• When were you last reorg'd, and why?
• In general, are meetings productive? Could you describe a particularly productive meeting?

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