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Re: Industry Experience (offshoot of Getting Hired)

Subject: Re: Industry Experience (offshoot of Getting Hired)
From: "Pro TechWriter" <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "Karen Murri" <kmurri -at- comcast -dot- net>
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:38:42 -0500

Hi Karen:

I was a little puzzled by your answer to a question about creating "help."
If you have documented manufacturing systems, you've created "help" for
floor personnel, right? It might not be Robohelp-help, but it's help anyway.
And manufacturing experience can translate quite easily to hardware
documentation, aerospace applications, defense, and medical devices. Trust
me, I know :-) I've done lots of manufacturing documentation.

Dan is right on the money: focus on that statement he quoted, and accentuate
the positive. My answer to "have you ever done..whatever" is, "well, not
exactly, but this was similar, and I am a very fast learner." Always think
of a positive spin to a question you might get, in place of a negative
answer.


You have a lovely pet family! Some of our cats must be related--they look
alike somewhat.

Best of luck,
PT


On 1/24/07, Karen Murri <kmurri -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:


I've been watching the conversation about resumes and getting hired with
avid interest. I've mentioned before that I'm looking hard and having
little
luck. I obviously need to work out some different tactics. I've had some
good advice on cover letters from Beth (thanks, Beth) and I'm planning to
try the T-letter and revamp my resume.

My questions are for you IT writers (and hiring managers) about getting
into
the industry.

Most of my background is in manufacturing and I've documented some pretty
intense manufacturing control systems. It's much the same -- writing-wise
--
as IT. You document screens or the tasks you accomplish with the screens
or
both. But, the development processes and environment seems (based on what
I
see you folks talking about) quite different. If an interviewer asks me if
I've ever written help (to which I have to say no) or user manuals (that's
a
more ambiguous answer), I know I won't get the job.

So my questions ----
Can I successfully sell my controls experience as IT experience? Would YOU
hire someone with controls background for software documentation jobs? If
so
-- how do I phrase it or sell it or whatever? What are the key words and
phrases that would show them I'm capable of the work?

I'm extremely confident in my writing, organizing, researching, and
interviewing skills. I've got 6 years tech writing experience with 3 more
in
instructional design and procedure documentation. I've got the chops but
I'm
obviously doing something wrong.

Feel free to address my question off-line, if'n you'd rather not keep the
getting hired thread going ad nauseum.

Thanks,

Karen Murri
Web: HYPERLINK "http://www.km-wordsmith.com/"www.km-wordsmith.com



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--
PT
pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com
I'm a Technical Technical Writer!
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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
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References:
Industry Experience (offshoot of Getting Hired): From: Karen Murri

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