Questions to Ask the Hiring Manager

If you are in a position to be discerning, we recommend that you educate yourself as completely as possible about the company's expectations, your manager, your colleagues, and the stresses and politics that come with the position. We suggest asking a potential employer these (or similar) questions during your interview to learn more about how you might fit in, both professionally and personally.

Note to shy persons: we know these questions may make you feel awkward. Please weigh that awkwardness against how you will feel working at a company whose processes, politics, and culture are incompatible with your work style. In our experience, success at a high-tech company is at least 50% personality — your interviewing skills will get you the offer, but good chemistry with the key players is essential to thriving on the job.

• With whom will I be working?
• What is this company looking for?
• How badly does this company want better doc?
• Will my efforts be respected and rewarded?
• Will the Subject Matter Experts help me succeed?
• Will my professional development be supported?
• What are the current dynamics in this company?
• What are some of the current politics?

With whom will I be working?

1. I would appreciate knowing more about you; please describe your background.
2. How many people have you hired during your career? Did you hire everyone on the current team?
3. What do you like most and least about your role (as a publications manager)?
4. What are the challenges currently facing your group and how are you handling them?
5. What do you consider are your responsibilities to this group?
6. How would you characterize your management style? What would you say are your strengths as a manager?
7. How will I find out if I need to improve? And how will I know if I am doing well?
8. How many people report directly to you? Has that number changed in the past year or so?
9. Who is the typical audience for your products?
10. Which companies are your major customers, and how many are there in total?
11. How do you find out what your customers want and need in terms of information deliverables?
12. What do customers like most and least about the deliverables you currently provide? How are you addressing their complaints?
13. What types of information deliverables does this team create? What do you personally consider the strengths and weaknesses of each? Do you have plans — and resources — to do things differently in the future?
14. Describe your typical documentation cycle. How early does the technical communicator usually get involved?
15. What publishing tools do you use? Do you have any plans to migrate to different ones?
16. Describe and prioritize the average (Junior/Intermediate/Senior/Lead) technical communicator's responsibilities?
17. Do you have specific short-term and long-term objectives in mind for this job?
18. What resources will the successful candidate have at his or her disposal to get the job done?
19. Tell me about your documentation review process.
20. May I see the software, documentation, and style guide that I would be working with?
21. Which of my current skills do you consider most appropriate for the kind of work you need done?
22. If you were me, why would you want to join this company?

1. Which skills (technical, professional, and other) are you looking for in this role? Which of these are most important to you?
2. How did you decide those skills were necessary? What problem(s) does having a person with those skills solve for you?
3. In terms of intangible skills (attitude, resourcefulness, leadership, independence, initiative, and so on), what type of person thrives here?
4. How would you measure and motivate this person's success?
5. Do writers here get more credit for how technical they are, for how well they write, or for how much they produce? Rank these.
6. Is tools knowledge more important than understanding the user's needs and being able to organize information to meet those needs?
7. Are you looking for someone who follows orders and delivers — no matter how unrealistic the demands — or one who does fine work but also insists on sane schedules, mutual commitment to deadlines, and appropriate attention to process?
8. Is it okay for a new team member to not yet know the company's subject matter or market?

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

1. Do you feel the tech pubs team's efforts/products are respected?
2. Do you think writers get less respect than engineers here? If so, why?
3. 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?
4. What kinds of incentives are in place to motivate people to go above and beyond the call of duty?

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

1. Do you train new members of the department? If so, in which skills, and when?
2. Has your group received onsite training? In what?
3. Will I receive training on tools, technologies, and methodologies to improve my performance?
4. Will the company cover the cost of seminars, conferences, or courses that are applicable to my work, and give me time to attend these events?
5. Does the company sponsor or otherwise support memberships in STC or similar professional development organizations?
6. Are there opportunities for promotion within this department? How about opportunities to transition to a different department? Give examples.
7. What happened to the last person who held this position? Why?

1. Give me an example of how you have dealt successfully with major change.
2. Do you create content yourself any longer, or do you primarily manage those who do?
3. What was your position before you were a manager?
4. Do tech writers here have a style guide? If so, who created it? When was it last updated?
5. Do writers edit their own work, or are professional editors available? If so, how many editors are there per writer?
6. 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?
7. How do you keep in touch with your writers' progress?
8. Do you ever use production specialists or illustrators?
9. Do writers have input in designing the UI?
10. Does the company produce context-sensitive online help, or just HTML-based online documentation? Are there plans to migrate to HTML-based online help?
11. Do you plan to migrate the documentation set to structured content (perhaps DITA, and if so which authoring tool will you use?
12. How often does this company have point releases?
13. Does the department get a say in scheduling software development projects? Do your build schedules include UI freeze dates?
14. What do you do when you feel your group isn't given enough time to produce the desired deliverables?
15. How many hours a week are people in your group currently working? How many hours would you like for them to be working?
16. Is anyone currently working from home? Is working from home an option? If so, how many days a week? How is it working out, and why?

1. How would you characterize the relationship between Technical Publications and Engineering/QA/Tech Support/senior management?
2. Where do you see potential conflicts between Technical Publications and other departments in the company?
3. Is communication evolving in the company? Does management take seriously the task of improving communication? Is management winning or losing this effort?
4. How long have you reported to your current boss?
5. When were you last reorg'd, and why?
6. Has your manager kept his or her promises to you, and if not are you satisfied with the reasons offered (if any)?
7. In general, are meetings productive? Could you describe a particularly productive meeting?

We recognize that this list is far from comprehensive. If you have suggestions for additions, please let us know.

We recommend you also review our articles on related topics, especially Questions to ask your Potential Colleagues.

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