Re: Absence of FrameMaker from your skill set -- what does it say?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

You hve two separate issues to address:

Your possible "FrameMaker snobbery."
No, not knowing FM does not suggest a "lack of seriousness about the 
profession."  There are industries where FM is not a standard tool, and a 
perfectly serious and outstandingly capable writer could have an entire career 
in any of them without ever touching it.  Not knowing FM *is* a disadvantage to 
writers seeking employment in industries where FM use is common or in which FM 
is the standard, however, and for someone seeking contract or other temporary 
work in such a field, it is likely to be a major, if not fatal, one.

Whether to list FrameMaker skills as a requirement or a "plus."
You need to decide what you want from a new writer.  Do you want someone who has 
skills comparable to your current team (some FM users and some not) who either 
knows FM or could learn it along with the rest of your current non-users, or do 
you want someone who knows FM well enough to jump right in without a learning 
curve and possibly assist your current non-users in making their own 
transitions?

There is no such thing as "a reasonable skill set to expect from a seasoned tech 
writer," except for whatever skill set reasonably serves your needs.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ava Cassidy" <ava -dot- m -dot- cassidy -at- gmail -dot- com>
> There's a strong sentiment among some of our managers in favor
> of standardizing on Frame. However, when we posted a job listing recently,
> there were some different opinions  over what it should say, and whether
> FrameMaker should be listed as a requirement or as a plus. In the end, it
> was not mentioned in the posting at all.
>
> So, um, clearly many things are wrong with this picture, but my specific
> question has to do with what's a reasonable skill set to expect from a
> seasoned tech writer. I've been asked to help sort through the resumes, and
> none that I've seen so far list FrameMaker as a skill (nor anything as
> "fancy" as structured authoring). My question is: Does the lack of
> FrameMaker on your resume suggest a lack of seriousness about the
> profession? Or am I just being a total FrameMaker snob to even ask that?

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