"Yo have exposure to the technical writing but no depth. No worries, we will make it"

I still remember the events of my interview day, 2nd February, 2009 at SBNT-BSM. I woke up at early morning and got in Parasuram Express from Trivandrum central railway station.

As I am a lucky man by birth, Parasuram was delayed 2 hours!

I just dialed Siby Philip, the train timing encyclopedia, in order to know whether there is any train available from Kayamkulam to Trivandrum on that time because I wanted to get back. Because…

1. The train reached Kayamkulam at 10.00 am!
2. We have scheduled the interview on 10.30 am!
3. The train requires only 2 hours for reaching Ernakulam!

He told “you just contact their HR and enquire whether they are ready to postpone the interview time to after noon”.

When I contacted Sajeev, their HR, he said “OK, no probs. We will wait for you”. Anyhow, I have reached Ernakulam at 12.30 and reached SBNT-BSM office, Kadavanthra at 12.45pm. Now, as usual, I have been given a bundle of print out and asked me to read it. Now, the time is 1.00PM.

…and my interview has started…

The interview board was consisting of MD, CTO and the PL. SB Nair, MD, has started the interview with a warm welcome.

“Hello Jobin!”
“Hello”

Then something unexpected happened. He took the print out of my resume. I have never expected this. As a usual exercise, I have, like any employee, exaggerated my skills and knowledge.

Since he was above 60, I expected a usual question ‘Introduce yourself’. For my amusement, the first expression was

…“You were a Journalist? Good! good”
Oh! Worked with a financial publication! All business publications are predicting that the IT industry would suffer a lot from the recession…

With the grace of God, I understand where he is fishing. He wanted to know really whether I have experience and knowledge in business. My answer was “I don’t think so, rather, it would be an advantage for medium and small scale IT companies”.

I did not know then that my answer was one of the major reasons for my appointment as well as the same answer was going to give me one week sleepless nights.

“Ofcourse, Journalism and technical writing is twin brothers. However, why did you switch from journalism to technical writing?”

Still I don’t know why I have answered the question as “for better salary. Money can make dead alive”.

…It may be because I have full confidence that these guys would not appoint me…

Then SB Nair started to scan my resume. The first 20 minutes of the interview, I was in full confidence. Next 30 minutes, I wanted to flee from there. Next 20 minutes I was in a yogi mood. And last 10 minutes

… I was about to cry…

The interesting factor is that he asked questions, rather discussed; based on my resume. He did not ask a single question related to anything that I did not mention in my resume.

I have had theoretical knowledge in ‘Knowledge Management’. I mentioned it in my resume. Simply, he dissected me like a poor frog in the hand of student in zoology lab. Though now I am proficient in Knowledge capturing, sharing, preserving and management, at least I have exposure to the knowledge management, I understand the importance and depth of knowledge management only after the interview.

Then he asked me about my salary expectation. I demanded a decent CTC.

… bit high CTC…

Because I am pretty sure that if he did ask a single question again, I would have cried.

…literally I would have cried…

“Can you please wait outside for a 2 minutes?”

I have parked myself in the reception. I wanted to flee from there. So, I made a call again to Siby for telling him what happened in the int…

“Jobin, MD wanted to meet you now”.

When I turn back, I saw the admin executive. I went back to the den again…

The interview board had welcomed me with broad smile. MD started to speak.

“Congratulation, you are appointed! I wanted to give you a feed back about the interview. You have exposure to the technical writing but no depth. No worries. We will make it.”

His last sentence was not a blabber or solace. He guided me how to plan, schedule, write, review, and publish software documentation on par with agile SDLC environment.

The interview gave me lot of information and incites. The first and foremost incite is:

…never exaggerate your resume…


In the same day evening, I have revised my resume. Now I can confidently declare that

…“I hereby declare that the above furnished information is true to the best of my knowledge and belief…”


Next post: The preparation for joinin SBNT-BSM

A 'documentography' of a technical writer

Thanks God for giving me an opportunity for woring with BSM Business solutions Pvt. Ltd., a fully owned system development center (SDC) of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement or Schulte group. Formerly the center was known as SBN Technologics -BSM Division.

You may ask what difference has BSM BS with other software companies??? Nothing! But, I felt something different! Because I benefited a lot from the company. Actually, the company gave me a chance to set up the entire documentation process, culture, methodology...

...and, ofcouse, more...

in their software development division. Literally, I had to start the documentation work 'From the Scratch'.

Usually, if you join a company as a technical writer, they will never allow you to set up the process unless you have a minimum of 10 years of experience and have proven track record. When I was joining SBNT BSM I have only 4-5 years of experience. Among these 4-5 years, 2 years was in main stream journalism. Actually, I can not blatantly claim that "I" have implemented the technical writing process and procedure in the company because I was getting clear vision and direction from a software industry stalwart, SB Nair, the founder and MD of SBNT. He is a product of IIT and IIM also a Certified Information Systems Auditor. You want to know more about him?

3rd March, 2009 was the day when I first stepped in the den of a lion! I have started my true expedition and experiments on software documentation process and the exciting journey in to the world of technical writing.

I have had an interview with Mr. SBN on 10th February, 2009. I have never been ivaluated in this manner never before...

Read next post for more details...