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I'm talking about the company's product. Are you really required to know the
company's product before you get the job? In my experience, there is always a
period of learning after you get hired that most often is never addressed by
the company. Some companies give training to facilitate that learning. Most
don't. All should.
Bill DuBay
Technical Writer
Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
email: bill_dubay -at- phoenix -dot- com
(714)790-2049 FAX: (714)790-2001 http://www.phoenix.com
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Original Text
From: Misti Tucker USAET(UTC -04:00) <mtucker2 -at- E-MAIL -dot- COM>, on 6/16/97 2:06
PM:
Bill DuBay said:
>It is my position that it is the obligation of the employer to teach us the
>technologies.
That's a lovely point of view, but in my experience it just isn't practical.
Large munti-national corporations may have the budget to take on an
apprentice
with a lot of raw talent and spend time and money and education. Most jobs,
though, are to be had in small startup companies that can barely make payroll
until that great idea pays off. Tell the CEO of Smallcorp that she has the
obligation to teach her new techwriter the technologies required to do the
job
and guess what...she'll decide she can't afford a tech writer after all. If
her product is documenterd at all, it will be done by a talented secretary
or a bored SME.
In reality the employers only obligation to us is to pay us for services
rendered. The rest is on the barter table to be hammered out at hiring time.
Misti Tucker
Technical Communication mta -at- cyberspace -dot- org (h)
& Help System Design mtucker2 -at- e-mail -dot- com (w)
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