skills/expertise/experience (was: Re: [thelist] a weird question)

[Erika Meyer]

>i've seen a crapload of resumes (and CVs, portfolios, etc) come
>through lately from people who claim to have experience in, or be
>experts at, content-management systems, usability, interface
>design, coding, etc...

I'm curious: what would constitute, oh, just to pull one out, an 
expert in 'interface design.' ?

Would you have had to have done some years at Xerox PARC... have been 
on the original Macintosh design team... or would a few years of 
hacking web sites do it?  Would you need some software and/or CD rom 
experience in addition to web design?  Would you need a degree in it?

I see this a lot: "5+ years experience in interface design."  I 
always wonder if I have had to have been designing application 
interfaces for 5 years, or if my experience making construction paper 
christmas cards and English 100 handouts would count.... or how about 
the books I've read on the subject?

I mean, sheesh, on my first computer, this was the interface:

<interface>

C:>

</interface>

(And I wonder: why the carat?  Why not just a colon?)
GUI design is still a pretty new field.

And what about raw talent?  Does anyone give a damn about that?

I'm just wondering.  Because from the EMPLOYEE perspective, a lot of 
EMPLOYER'S are asking a heckofalot... for relatively modest 
compensation.

Erika

erika at seastorm.com