I've interviewed a few people for such a position in the past. Here's what has worked for me.
- Basic questions, such as How long have you used FrameMaker? What is the latest version you've used? What's the largest number of FM users you've supported? What types of documents/books (financial, medical, etc.) have you supported? - Ask them to describe a complex template (book preferably) they've built. - Ask them to send that template to you. (They may not be able to because of company rules. In that case, ask if they can send a different template.) - Ask them to describe a FrameMaker challenge and how they handled it. - Ask them to describe a creative solution or workaround in FrameMaker they've developed. - Describe a real-life FrameMaker problem/challenge you've faced and ask how they would handle it. These last two sound pretty basic but you can learn quite a bit about their experience level from the answers: - What is your favorite feature in FrameMaker (or favorite thing about FrameMaker templates)? - What features would you add to FrameMaker? (I've found this is a better question than "What would you change?") I've been very pleased with the hires I've made or recommended using questions such as these. I've never administered an actual test. I hope you will share what you come up with. Good luck! Pat -----Original Message----- From: Framers <framers-bounces+pat.christenson=morningstar....@lists.frameusers.com> On Behalf Of Steve Rickaby Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 11:53 AM To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software. <framers@lists.frameusers.com> Subject: Re: [Framers] How do you identify an advanced Framemaker user? At 10:31 -0600 15/4/18, Carol J. Elkins wrote: >Over the next couple of years, I need to help my major client find and train >an in-house replacement for me as I wind down my freelance practice. They will >not consider an independent contractor next time, so it may be harder to >recruit and identify someone with the required skills. I've built 20 years of >documentation for this client in unstructured Framemaker, and managing these >thousands of documents and books depends less on someone being a good >technical writer than being an excellent Framemaker user. > >For those of you who are corporate employers, I'd like to know how you screen >candidates to identify those who truly are advanced Framemaker users. I write here as a recipient of such a test, so apols because I'm not a corporate recruiter/test administerer. It was for a contract with a well-known London-based financial business, many years ago. The test consisted of a number of unstructured FrameMaker tasks of increasing difficulty, done against the clock. At that time I considered myself to be an advanced FrameMaker user, but wasn't ;-) Nevertheless, I completed all the items in the test, which took about thirty minutes, successfully. I'm afraid I cannot remember now what the tasks were, but I'm sure you could easily make your own up. At the end I was told that I'd done the test in the shortest time ever. Didn't get the contract, though, as another guy did almost as well and didn't have to commute/work remotely :-( To build on what Robert suggested, how about asking candidates to build a folksy template from scratch, and devilishly include a couple of things that you cannot do with FrameMaker (there must still be some)? That way you get a good idea of their competence *and* incorporate the performance under stress and key-marks in the forehead stuff. And if that works out, then ask them how they'd adapt it for multi-platform delivery ;-) -- Steve _______________________________________________ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.frameusers.com&d=DwICAg&c=qrd1rYdJNb4QhfvJv5PebOPglYwfSMJ71NR_1HMKptQ&r=XCAkAkKD_C5LA8IHfBffTgJF3-vQqo8LO_6iaUj61_E&m=mZTfRiTJr5gipTv2jEeCJXJ5hwhaoN9vp3wClyjIwHE&s=-pVh0MOoAos3C4nMsNJ3vzIWih7mlqmRQh9oTaF2g6M&e= Archives located at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mail-2Darchive.com_framers-2540lists.frameusers.com_&d=DwICAg&c=qrd1rYdJNb4QhfvJv5PebOPglYwfSMJ71NR_1HMKptQ&r=XCAkAkKD_C5LA8IHfBffTgJF3-vQqo8LO_6iaUj61_E&m=mZTfRiTJr5gipTv2jEeCJXJ5hwhaoN9vp3wClyjIwHE&s=U2JsiacBvPnKUQ9PF_6fYJFhY5qtx0eoUKfQgLx11Mk&e= Subscribe and unsubscribe at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lists.frameusers.com_listinfo.cgi_framers-2Dframeusers.com&d=DwICAg&c=qrd1rYdJNb4QhfvJv5PebOPglYwfSMJ71NR_1HMKptQ&r=XCAkAkKD_C5LA8IHfBffTgJF3-vQqo8LO_6iaUj61_E&m=mZTfRiTJr5gipTv2jEeCJXJ5hwhaoN9vp3wClyjIwHE&s=_2HGlCGBzIoGqkcWSlYCIyNz9WVnYeIzIMUfVGwlOOA&e= Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com _______________________________________________ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com
