Re: Getting Experience -- was Volunteer TW Services

[Michael Burke <miburke -at- WSICORP -dot- COM>]

     >So, with this context, let's pose the question again: If you're a
     >newbie tech writer with no portfolio
     >or tangible experience, *how do you get experience*?

     I agree with the contention that to build a portfolio without having
     any job experience would be to document an existing application that
     has poor or no documentation.

     After graduating from a tech writing program last year, my portfolio
     contained (among other items) a procedural docs for a particular
     FrameMaker function and a shareware screen capture utility, and
     several re-written (and, I think, improved) UNIX man pages. I also
     included a pair of articles I wrote for the class newsletter.

     I was hired after my second interview using these as samples.

     I cannot attest to the thinking on the other side of the interview
     desk, but I must believe that someone hiring a new writer would not
     expect that person to have documents for new products. The interviewee
     needs to prove that she can document products; one way to do that is
     documenting products that she has access to.

     One could also try writing a wide variety of pieces, so she could
     adapt the portfolio with documents relevant to the position.

     Michael Burke
     Technical Writer
     WSI Corporation
     Billerica, MA