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First of all, congratulations on getting the interview! That's often the biggest hurdle.
I can't tell you how to feel, but:
a) You have no reason for self-doubt. Your interviewers have already read your honest résumé. They have enough confidence in your potential to spend half a day of their valuable time with you. You should share their confidence in you.
b) It is not shameful to lack knowledge of programming languages. Your interviewers lack knowledge of technical writing, which is why they need a tech writer. They're proud of their professional expertise, and you should be proud of yours.
c) Can't help you with regular expressions and APIs. I lack knowledge of them. :-)
d) Browse the web for advice on overcoming nervousness. And remember that you're not a newbie: This is already your third job! When I had been a tech writer for four years, interviewers started referring to me as "experienced."
Best of luck!
-----Original Message-----
From: Anonymous
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 10:02 AM
To: Techwr-l
Subject: Advice needed for an upcoming interview
*Please post your responses to the list, as replies cannot be forwarded to the anonymous poster.*
I have a job interview on Thursday. I documented an embedded version of the company's product at a previous position, so I have some familiarity with it. But self-doubt begins to creep in as the interview approaches, especially since it's scheduled to last 4 hours and includes a technical VP and I feel that my technical skills are my weakest attribute (shamefully, I don't know any programming languages).
Does anyone have advice for how to endure such a long interview? What kind of questions should I be prepared for, especially from the VP and the SE that will be interviewing me?
The company's product makes heavy use of both regular expressions and APIs.
There were recently a couple of threads about good API documentation that are good resources. But how about regular expressions? Any suggestions for reading up on those?
I am just starting out in this field: if I get this job, it would be only my third position as a technical writer, so please excuse these rather nervous and fundamental questions. Any other advice, of course, would also be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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