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Re: Advice needed for an upcoming interview

Subject: Re: Advice needed for an upcoming interview
From: "Monique Semp" <monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:04:58 -0700

You're not supposed to know about programming languages and they won't
expect you to.

Well.... that depends. It depends on the specific position, on whether the company's existing writers are technically-inclined, what the deliverables are to be, how the company is staffed, etc.

The vast majority of the assignments I take are *specifically* because I know programming languages. But I choose these assignments over less programming-oriented ones precisely because I do know programming (and like it).

I believe that most "API writer jobs" do require a good bit of programming language knowledge. That said, they should not require sufficient expertise to replace the programmer! I've been away from programming professionally for many years now, and so would not relish the thought of getting program code to not only run as it's expected, but to properly handle all the errors and exceptions. That indeed is the job of the programmer and QA team.

But to do the most thorough job of API documentation, nothing beats a bit of hands on experience so that you know what sorts of things the programmers really need from your docs.

-Monique
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References:
Advice needed for an upcoming interview: From: Anonymous
Re: Advice needed for an upcoming interview: From: David Crosswell

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