As promised in my previous article, this post covers possible answers to common questions in entry-level technical writing interviews.

Entry-Level Interview Questions and Potential Answers

These are some questions interviewers might ask an entry-level technical writer and possible responses:

Q1: Can we know more about you? or Tell me about yourself?

Answer:

“My goal is to get a job as a technical writer after I graduate from college. Throughout my education, I have participated in student writing clubs, served on the editorial board of the school newspaper, and taken a variety of classes that have assisted me in developing my writing abilities. I have a blog on Medium where I write technical articles. I also attended various technical writing bootcamps (you can mention the names of the bootcamp). I have also contributed to open-source projects (you can say the names of the projects and how you contributed to those projects).
In my spare time, I enjoy cooking for my friends and writing poetry.”

Q2: Why are you interested in working with us as a technical writer?

Answer:

“I look forward to working in an environment that encourages professional development. Working alongside talented people has always been one of my top priorities and I believe that working in your organisation will give me that opportunity.”

Q3: How do you distinguish yourself from other candidates?

Answer:

“I can quickly relate to other people because I am an excellent communicator. Also, You need someone who can clearly explain your company's complex analysis and diagnostic tools because your customers aren't as tech-savvy. I am the best candidate to communicate the information. I take a straightforward, understandable approach.”

Q4: What will your day-to-day functions be for this role?

Answer:

"Judging from the job description, I would be responsible for working closely with the engineering and product management team to create product documentation, white papers and technology concepts that are easily understood by a broad audience."

Q5: What is technical writing, and what interests you about it?

Answer:

“To me, technical writing is a passion. The content I create helps people learn more about technology and makes it easier for them to adapt to new forms of technology that affect every part of our lives... Although I have no formal training in technology, I have always been fascinated by it. Therefore, I wished that someone could explain to me in simple and clear terms how software or a programme works. My curiosity about how the different parts of technology work started at an early age. To develop my technical understanding, it was helpful for me to find explanations that were simple rather than complex. It turned out that technical writers did just that, and that's how I got into technical writing.”

Q6: What are examples of technical documents?

Answer:

“Some of the types of technical documents are: The formal or traditional technical document is the standard technical documentation we know, such as Product Manuals, User Guides, API Documentation, Science Papers, Research, and Reports. Also, the marketing documents are used to create easy-to-interpret and concise articles that help clients understand how to properly operate a product like whitepapers, case studies, and proposals.”

Q7: What tools do you use for technical writing and why?

Answer:

“I work with Google Docs and Microsoft Word for writing and editing, and when I’m done, I use Grammarly and Hemmingway editor to ensure that the tenses and grammar are correct. Other tools that I use are Snagit for image capturing and SmartDraw for drawing diagrams or flowcharts in my documents.”

Q8: What process do you use in creating technical content?

Answer:

“I use the following steps when creating technical content:

• Decide on the topic or product that I want to write about.
• Outline the basics of what I want and how I intend to get it done by dividing the main topic into subtopics.
• Research on my target audience.
• Determine how long the writing process will take.
• Critically research what I want to write.
• Finally, I review the content and ensure that it is well-written.”

Q9: What techniques are used to make your technical writing effective and user-friendly?

Answer:

“Here are the techniques that I use to ensure that my technical writing is user-friendly and effective; I am clear and concise in my writing, using simple words and examples, I thoroughly research answers to the problems, I make use of active voice rather than passive voice as active voice creates more precise, more concise sentences, whereas Passive voice often creates unclear, less direct, wordy sentences, I curtail my writing to suit my target audience, which is the readers of the document, I use visual representations where I feel words cannot explain the concept.”

Q10: What technical writing style guides are you familiar with?

Answer:

“There are a lot of technical writing style guides used in creating technical documents such as; Google Developer Documentation Style Guide, GitLab Documentation Style Guide, Microsoft Writing Style guide, IBM Style Guide, but I am familiar with Microsoft Writing Style Guide which emphasises on going straight to the point when writing, encourages the use of; familiar words, sentence-style capitalization and short sentences for clarity.”

Q11: Do you have any questions for us?

Answer: Listed below are some examples of questions you can ask:

• “What are the opportunities for professional growth in this organisation?”,
• “Could you tell me a little bit about the person I would report to directly?”,
• “Can you give me an idea of what success looks like in this position?”,
• “How would you describe the work environment here?”,
• “Can you describe to me examples of projects I would be working on?”

Conclusion

Hopefully, the information in this article will help you prepare for a technical writing interview. Anticipate my next article on frequently asked questions in senior-level technical writing interviews.

Feel free to ask me questions about technical writing on Twitter or in the comments section.