Re: Average Length of TW Resume
<SNIP>
"The material I write for almost all of my clients is proprietary. I do not
have permission, in most cases, to even discuss what I was writing about in
general terms, let alone show samples! In some (very few) cases, I have
permission to show a short sample (a select few pages) at an interview but
not to leave said sample behind (I can't let it out of my sight)."
ME:
This brings up an important point in interviewing for a new job: How
do you show your writing skill if you cannot show samples? A person
can talk about what they did and how they did it, but what happens
when the interviewer asks to see your work? It seems that a
prospective employer takes a huge risk in hiring someone without first
seeing what they are capable of producing. How do you get around that
or what is your alternative to actual client samples?
Erick Kandl
ekandl -at- unitechsys -dot- com
Talk REALLY fast! <grin>
I've been doing this for a long time; I have an excellent reputation in the local marketplace here in Toronto. I've been quite active in the local STC chapter, too which doesn't hurt.
I CAN, and do, give references. These people know I have given out their names, and they are quite willing to talk about the quality of work I did, since I can't show the contents.
And as for an interviewer taking a risk on me because they can't see my portfolio, well, they take a risk on hiring someone whose portfolio they have seen. There are people who lay false claims to documents they have not created. I have a colleague who recently interviewed a candidate. Not until the portfolio was left behind did someone else in the office recognize that one of the samples was not the work of the candidate.
As I said before, I have only run into one instance where I didn't get an interview because I couldn't produce a portfolio. I have never not gotten a contract merely because I didn't have one. I haven't gotten every contract I've chased, of course; no one does. But lack of a portfolio was not the determining factor.
Win
-------------------
Win Day
Technical Writer
http://www.wordsplus.net
mailto:winday -at- wordsplus -dot- net
http://members.home.net/winday/index.html
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