Re: Experience VS Ability [more tools]

[Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM>]

[Note to self: read the digest all the way through before posting on one
topic...]

When I first joined TechWR-L oh-those-ages-ago, I know I insisted that

"It Isn't ABOUT Tools!(tm), " and that

"Any GOOD, modern Publishing System should be as transparent to the writer
who knows how to develop documentation as it is to the person using the
document."

I guess I died on that hill, too.....

Ernie Tamminga Rightly Pointed Out:

>If someone
>is especially strong in the "top top" criteria but doesn't already know
>our specific tools, then evidence of ability quickly to LEARN
>development tools and master their nuances, certainly counts.

[Let me point out that I still love this trade, and enjoy learning new
things... nuance excites me <smile>]

While lately I haven't run into a job opening where the company is willing
to train on tools (mostly because I've been specialized on one toolset for
awhile now...so don't ever hear from them maybe), there's a certain toolset
out there that's changed completely with every revision every year for the
last four years... and  yet quite a few prospective employers seem to
assume that it's what "everyone" uses...

"The job's on XXXX for XX, of course...."

Assuming I don't tell them the project's doomed, and hang up, I'll tell
them that I haven't used XXXX on that platform in a couple of years, but
that I could *probably* pick it up (the answer depends on how
hungry I am).... "of course," the recruiter doesn't believe me, because the
client demands 5 years' experience in XXXX for XX (even though it didn't
exist a year ago), and it took that recruiter 11 weeks of classroom
training to use XXXX for XX like a typewriter...

Now, I picked up HTML in late '94 all by myself just hacking somebody
else's code in about a month (which got me the next gig), learned enough
Java to document applets and "solutions" created with it, and I've picked
up all sorts of applications on *my* platform in a couple of hours... I'm
worried, though,  that some of the  "latest" tools are unusable and
unlearnable.... we're no longer dealing with good modern publishing
systems, but "standards."

If the actual client contacts me, and they actually use the tool, I can
usually convince them (as Ernie suggested -- if I actually believe I can)
but agency recruiters and HR are a harder sell.... (then, "of course" there
are those who don't even ask <smirk>)

I've got a fair amount of opportunities right now, and I'm not that far
into the between-gigs thing to start hating job-hunting or being convinced
that I'll never work in this trade again *yet* but I wonder sometimes...
how long will it be before it happens right away?

Comments?

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dan BRINEGAR, CCDB Vr2L INK

Leveraging Institutional Memory through  Contextual
Digital Asymptotic Approximations of Application Processes suited to
utilization by Information-Constrained, Self-Actualizing
Non-Technologists.

vr2link -at- vr2link -dot- com

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