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"And the truly ironic aspect of this conundrum is that writers
who can effectively _learn_ about and _communicate_ about
complex technologies of any sort rarely, if ever, have
difficulties learning to use any tools at their disposal."
Exactly my point
"Veering around to something that I think would be
an outstanding interview question, and certainly
good for some interesting discussion..."
And this is what I'm asking. Except, most often, you don't even make it
to the interview stage if your resume doesn't show the experience.
Here's what happened to me yesterday. What should I have said? What
should I say (if I get another chance to say something)?
I interviewed for a "marketing/communications writer" job. My resume
shows more than 10 years of tech writing experience. They *do* want a
tech writer, but they also want a marketing writer. This writer's main
job will be overseeing the company's Web site. They use FrontPage. My
resume shows that I use FrontPage. It does not show that I ever had
training in it because I didn't. They interviewed me for the job. I am
always honest when I interview for a job. Besides, they could look up my
Web site easily enough.
She doesn't know how honest I am, so maybe some of my answers sounded
too goody-goody. For example, "What do you like to do in your spare
time?" I have fun figuring out things on the computer, and I have fun
with my Web site. So that's what I told her. I forgot to tell her I like
to read and I love to eat fattening food. Think she believed me?
She told me one of their biggest concerns is to find someone with not
only tech writing experience but, also, marketing writing experience.
Well, that's what my Web site is, isn't it? I reminded her of that. And
I also reminded her that I have loads of proposal experience. Isn't that
marketing? What else could I have said?
She told me this interview process will involve three rounds of
interviews. If I make the cut for the second interview, what do you
think I should try to present?
Also, would you look at my Web site, http://www.evansplumbing.com? What
kind of impression do you think they'll get from it? I just taught and
am still teaching myself things about doing it. Do you think it'll work
for me or against me?
