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There are ways to get around the proprietary issue. One is to create and
save a user manual you wrote on something commonplace. Now don't jump up and
recycle your "how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" from your
freshman year at college. ;-) But there are many things - interesting
things - that you can document and save. I have instructions on how to
re-felt a late-19th century billiard table, for example. You can pull a
topic from a hobby; just make sure it's not too commonplace and that your
instructions are detailed and accurate.
When working on an online Help project, "Lorem Ipsum" the text, screw up the
proprietary graphics and lose some topics. Your interviewer will be
undoubtedly looking for organization and function, not content. Else, bring
a skeleton of your project home and take the content you wrote above and
paste it in (as long as content matches design).
It also helps to build and maintain a professional web site. Show off what
you know up there.
These are all samples that you can freely distribute. There are other ways
to get around the 'proprietary' issue, but these should get you going fine.
