Re: Preparation for a phone screen interview

["CB Casper" <knowone -at- surfy -dot- net>]

I fully agree with John on this one.

My portfolio shows what results I am capable 
of producing, whether it's graphics, flow 
charts, instructions, or fondling fonts.

The tools I use to obtain those results are
just tools. In my last interview, the position
included a requirement for expertise in FM, 
which I had never used. Fortunately this did
not preclude me from getting an interview.

My portfolio showed the interviewer what they 
needed to know. My 10 years experience using 
Interleaf told them that I was capable of 
learning, using, and mastering a complex 
techwriting tool. As for the interviewer, 
he was unconcerned about my experience with 
FM, it was about bringing a different 
experience to the team that was vital. I was
fortunate in that I talked to someone who "got it".

The question was about results, not tools.

If the question had been about creating
graphs, and you had never used a tool that
creates graphs, then the answer should be No.

This begs a question. 
What is the most complex TW tool, and how
long does it take for a complete novice to
be able to produce something reasonable?
How long for someone familiar with the basic
TW tool, MS Word? If you respond, please
change the subject line.

I'm not talking about the products we document, 
but the tools we USE to prepare our deliverables.

CB - producing results for over 20 years using
tools that come and go due to various whims

---- Someone other than John ----
But when I talk with technical people, they 
usually "get it" and don't care what tools I 
have used in the past, because they understand 
how quickly an experienced person can do a job 
using a new similar tool. To them, FrameMaker 
vs. Word, Visio vs. FlowCharter are trivial 
discussions rather than dealbreakers.

-- 
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