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RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria [Remembering]
Subject:RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria [Remembering] From:John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 Oct 2002 10:30:19 -0500
>John, do you actually plunk down a 40-piece portfolio at the interview
table?
>Whoa!
The portfolio is in a black, real-leather, zippered portfolio...about 5
inches thick. In the portfolio, in addition to samples which are kept in
plastic sheet envelopes, I have a page per gig listing the references, phone
number, address, title, etc., so when they ask for references, I copy the
sheet(s) and circle the ones I want them to call...I usually giver them
three sheets, with only one circled. The effect of this is two-fold. I
rotate who they call so no one person gets bugged, and the other is for
impression...if they see 5 references on a list and they only cal one and
get a good reference, they'll probably make the connection that if they
called the others, they'd get 5 more good references...times 3 sheets,
wow...18 good references!
In the portfolio, I have letters of reference, and I also keep and include
any emails I've gotten over the years where something nice was said about me
or my work. One NOC manager calls me his "tech writing god", you know THAT'S
in there.
The samples are sorted by type, and each section has a tab. I tab printed
documentation, online documentation, web samples, etc.
When I arrive at the interview, when we sit down, I take the portfolio out
of my laptop case and let it land on the table with a dull "whoomf", just
loud enough to be heard but not hard enough to bounce coffee cups on the
table, but I don't open it. In most cases, the eyes of the interviewer will
keep dropping to the portfolio I have in front of me as we speak.
Finally, the anticipation will be too much and they ask to see it.
I slowly unzip it and hand it to the person like it is something truly
valuable, because it IS. I'll then flip through it, discussing points that I
think are particularly germane to the requirements.
Is this a show? Sure. If there is one thing I learned in 18 years of
sales...they don't buy the steak...they buy the sizzle.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
"Be accurate...the 4am wakeup call you prevent could be your manager's"
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