Re: Gray hair and first impressions

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

> ...but in tech writing I haven't felt that pressure, and I'm a FOG
> (fat old guy).


One addendum/caveat:  You can be old, but your skills better not be. 

I have worked with older writers who had stopped trying to stay abreast of
technology. Listening to them blather on about their mainframe days, when
they punched cards to enter COBOL, doesn't really help when you're trying
to get your fonts to embed in your PDFs. If they can embed fonts WHILE
they blather, that might be okay, although my BTL (blather tolerance
level) diminishes as deadlines loom.

I interviewed another FOG with 20 years of computer experience, which had
apparently been followed by 10 years of bass fishing. He didn't know what
a Web browser was, and had never used a windows-based GUI. The job in
question - documenting a Web-based Windows-compliant GUI - required
somebody who could hit the ground running. We didn't hire him.


-Keith "gotta go so I can get in line for the senior's early bird buffet"
Cronin

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