In this video interview, I ask Saul Carliner to give practical tips for handling some of the toughest situations that technical communication managers face, including firing, metrics, frank conversations with underperforming employees, and more. Saul gave a two-day workshop at the STC Summit for technical communication managers.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 35 min. Richard Hamilton is the author of Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation. His book, published in 2009, is one of the few books written specifically for managers that addresses the diversity of issues that managers face today – everything from hiring … more »

This is a guest post by Thomas Curnyn, a technical writer in Dublin, Ireland. He currently works for a software company specializing in school administration and scheduling software. He’s been at his job for the last 5 years and has been a writer for 10 years altogether. Tom wrote quite a while back about writing tests (10 Alternate Tests for Evaluating Technical Writing Job Candidates … more »

I received an email the other day from a hiring manager who asked me what tests they should give to their technical writing candidates. She writes, We are hiring two new technical writers and are trying to come up with a practical for the candidates to complete. We had been asking the applicants to write a quick how to (e.g make a pb&j, withdraw cash … more »