Want That Job? Develop Your Writing!

My field is education.  I'd been working in it for 19 years when I decided I wanted to be a school-based administrator.  I was job-seeking all over again.  Not a problem, though, I had sought jobs successfully in the past and thought this next interview would be no different.  I knew the drill:

• Chit Chat
• Interview
• Review of my credentials
• Strong handshake to finish

Then, something new was added as I walked out the door.  I was given a fictitious school and a school-wide crisis with which to deal.  I was handed a piece of paper and was told to craft a letter to the parents of my students to inform them of the "crisis" and what I would be doing about it.  As I sat at the table that was placed just outside the interview room, a 15-minute deadline was added.

Communication is paramount in today's workplace.  In fact, the required evaluation form that I use with my employees has me evaluating the communication skills of not just my teachers, but also the secretaries and custodians.  Verbal skills always jump to the front of the mind in these cases, but writing is just as important.  Many organizations now require a writing sample to be submitted with the application.   

Kathrine Brooks shares five tips to improving your writing sample that you provide to prospective employers.  Promoting proactivity and providing an unsolicited sample, checking your grammar and spelling, to tailoring the topic to fit the job for which you are applying, she gives good advice for improving the quality of your writing sample to nail that job.

Psychology Today: The Dreaded Writing Sample

Comments

[Holden Lewis]

I don't buy this. I write for a living, and I see little evidence that corporations care about good writing. Even if they do think they care about it, a lot of people don't know good, clear writing when they read it. I'll bet that a lot of hiring managers prefer obfuscation over clarity, anyway.

Nope, it's all about the skills needed to do the job. If two people are equally qualified, but one is the better writer, then the poorer writer is more likely to get the job, simply because bad writing looks more "corporate" and official.

[Bert]

Holden-
I guess we'll have to differ on this. I routinely deal with those in supervisory positions and they do care about quality. Maybe we are working from different definitions of "good writing". I am simply talking about good solid writing with strong vocabulary knowlege and an understanding of grammar and style. I'm inferring from your comment that you are using a possible definition of a style of writing that goes over the top in vocabulary and style to hide weaknesses in content. If so, we agree that writing in such a way to say one thing and mean (or avoid saying) another is not good writing.