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Re: tool nonsense (gearing up to be a tech writer)
Subject:Re: tool nonsense (gearing up to be a tech writer) From:Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 01 May 2001 10:18:22 -0300
John Posada wrote:
> I only ask this because I did something similar to this. I
> interviewed on Friday, they asked about it...I said I knew it (I
> lied...so shoot me), I went home and ordered it for Sat delivery, by
> Monday I was at the job and productive.
>
Shocking! Shocked, I am...
But John's ignoble tale of skullduggery and derring-do does give me an
opening for something that I wanted to add to the discussion:
You don't need to know specific tools. But you do need to know what to
expect in general category of tools. For example, if you are working
with a word processor, you should expect to find some implementation of
paragraph styles. For a typographical program, you might expect kerning
tools. For on-line help for Windows - well, you get my drift. If you
know what features should be there, you can learn a new tool in that
general category fairly painlessly.
Partly, John may have been able to carry out his bluff because he was a
quick study. But I suspect that a large reason was that he knew what to
expect in FrameMaker, even though he had never used it.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
"Hal-an-Tow, jolly rumbelow,
We were out long before the day-O
To welcome in the summer time, to welcome in the May-O
Summer is a'coming in and winter's gone away."
- Traditional, "Halston Furey Dance"
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