Producing technical writing sample during interview

During the interview, it is very common when the interviewer asks for the writing sample, this happens with all of us. So, what to do in that case?

No silver bullet but we can take few approach.

Why they want it and what is stopping you from doing that?

Why they want it?

1. Want to see your writing style and skill
2. Grammer proficiency
3. Tool used by you
4. Domain you worked
5. Style guide knowledge
6. Continue….

What is stopping you?

You may not have it- You never carry anything from office hardcopy or softcopy. Good job this is expected of you.

1. If you are not violating confidentiality, the security or any legal issue you can carry and distribute all depends on nature of the document.So when you are producing anything from your past job make sure you are violating any legal issue. Your prospective employer will understand this.
2. You can also create documents that look and speak exactly the same as the ones with sensitive information, but change the names and identities of the topics.
3. A next approach could be to invest some time researching the company you are applying to and use any information you can to create something “for” them. Who knows, they may hire you on the spot!
4. For ‘public’ profiles, take a screenshot of one page (UG) or one topic (help system) that illustrates your work. get permission from the client to do this, but, in general, use an older version of the documentation, not the most recent version.You can also, use a photo editor to remove any product-identifying, company-identifying, or proprietary information… like product names or feature names specific enough to a product to identify the company.
5. If you can’t use any of your previous work, you could create some sample documentation for FrameMaker, Word, or RoboHelp since you’re already familiar with these tools.