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Subject:Re: Using software your clients propos From:Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 3 Nov 1995 08:27:01 PST
Bev Parks writes:
>But, noooooo. In an interview situation when asked with the same
>vague question, we interpret it how we wish and answer
>accordingly. In all likelihood, the interviewer *meant* "do you
>know how to" do something, but being the masters of language
>that we are, we ignore that probability and answer to out best
>advantage.
>Guerilla marketing at its finest.
I disagree. I learned more PowerPoint tricks in my first hour with
the program than the people around me had learned in five years. (I
cheated -- I skimmed the manual.)
I was more of a Word for Windows expert than the people around me before
I even laid eyes on it -- because I had a clue about how DTP programs
worked, and they did not, even after using it for a couple of years.
(I know of one product marketer, for instance, who still centers text
by putting spaces in the left margin.)
I know one person who became the local FrameMaker expert her second
day! This was in a place with a large Tech Pubs/DTP group. They had
been using it for years; she had never even seen it before.
In short:
* Most places have poorly trained users.
* Their standards for proficiency are extremely low.
* Nobody reads the manual.
And thus, when they ask, "Can you use FrameMaker?" they usually
mean, "Can you use FrameMaker as well as an untrained person who
doesn't read the manual?"
Personally, I always answer "yes" to that one.
Or, to put it another way, "In the land of the buttless, the half-assed
man is king!"
-- Robert
P.S. The very vagueness of the questioning shows the interviewer's
cluelessness. The few shops with high standards also ask more specific
questions. But they don't expect outsiders to live up to their standards
out of the box.
--
Robert Plamondon * High-Tech Technical Writing
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (503) 453-5841
"I regret that I have but one * for my country." -- Nathan Hale
