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> I'll speak intelligently about the sample. Why I chose the application that
> I did to write it, why I chose a certain layout for a certain type of
> information, the document's design, how I would go about working with a SME
> in an environment where this type of documentation is created, etc.
>
> I might not be able to speak about the application it is written for. That's
> what the developer of the application should be able to do.
>
> But then, it shouldn't matter. You are hiring me for my documentation
> skills, not my application development skills.
I am going to disagree with you as well. You should be able to speak with some
intelligence about the technology as well. If you wrote the material, and you
truly took the time to understand it, than it should not be a stretch to remember
what the technology did or what the purpose of it was.
I actually check for this in interviews because I want to see that writers
internalized the information and really took the time to understand it versus
just parroting what an SME told them to write. Anybody can just parrot words.
Actually ingesting and digesting information is a lot harder.
Furthermore, picking tools, design, and layout are all nits. These things have
only a small impact on the value of a document. I personally could care less what
tools people used. Anybody can master a tool. That's easy. The real impact on a
doc is how well the writer understood and managed the information.
Andrew Plato
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