Thursday

Recruit Technical Writers

Our company recruits heavily on college campuses. We like to recruit for the jobs we actually do, so we send technical writers to recruit technical writers, engineers to recruit engineers, and so on. This helps us give candidates a more complete view of what it's like to be a technical writer. I recently joined the recruiting team for Texas Tech. I decided to get involved in recruiting because I wanted to talk about tech writing and get other people excited about the career. It's also fun to travel and meet new people. Today, I shadow a more experienced recruiter, Robin, at a local career fair before I go to the Texas Tech campus later on in the semester. Prior to the career fair, Robin and I met to talk about what we look for in students:

• B.A. or B.S. in Technical Communication, English, Journalism, or similar major with editing and writing emphasis.
• An interest in technology.
• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Qualities of persistence and initiative.
• Ability to handle multiple projects/priorities.
• Desktop publishing skills.
• Experience with MS Word, FrameMaker, PageMaker, or other publishing software.
• Familiarity with screen capture programs, online documentation, HTML, and XML a plus.

We also talked about the questions students frequently ask.