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Subject:Re: Huh? and Tool Knowledge and Foot in Door From:Jeff Johnson <jjohnson -at- OPTUM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 29 Jan 1999 18:21:36 -0800
Jen wrote:
. . .in Southern California, it's almost 100% required for TWs
> to have FrameMaker and RoboHELP experience. No experience, no job
> interview. After over 7 years experience with MS Word, I'll be taking
> a FrameMaker class next month.
When I got the tech writing job I have, all I had was years of unrelated
professional experience, a little Word experience, a couple of tech writing
classes, and a couple of writing samples. Plenty of people at Southern
California job fairs were willing to talk. I did get interviews too, though
not for seven-years-of-experience kind of money. For an articulate novice,
an advantage of job fairs is that you get a miniature interview _before_
they get your resume.
My boss learned the job on the job, and she figures her writers can too.
However, she had me do an product-related interview and produce a write-up
before making the offer.
