[Sigia-l] Junior IAs?

[richard_dalton at vanguard.com]

Eric Scheid writes:
> > We also have Junior IAs, some straight from college, others from other
> > departments (content, development, etc)
>
> what's the usual practice there:
>
>    gradual training across all aspects of IA
>    (eg. assisting a senior IA on projects), or
>
>    focussed training in particular niches, or
>
>    unplanned "throw 'em in the deep end" ?

The first and second. They generally assist more experience IAs on 
projects for a few months and while doing that get some focused exposure 
to the tools/techniques being used on those projects (which may be 
different from other projects) - they then either get similar projects for 
themselves to use those tools on or assist another IA on a different 
project to learn some more tools/techniques.

> second question:
>
>    any special background or basic capabilities preferred?

MMmmm, an enquiring mind? Ability to think *about* users without thinking 
*for* them? Natural desire to "organize" stuff? Beyond that we've seen 
successful IAs come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

        Richard