TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Bruce Wolf wondered: <<what do you do when you go to a job interview and
some 20 something interviewer's jaw drops to the floor because you look like
his grandpa? Facelifts and "Just for Men" perhaps?>>
I remind myself that the 20-something dotcom startup interviewer, despite an
external appearance of self-confidence, is well aware of what happened to
95% of his colleagues in 2001-2002, and is dealing with a deep-down
insecurity: "Eek! Maybe I'm next on the hit list because all those old
fogeys won't buy products from someone half my age and secretly want me to
fail so I'll have to find a real job where I'll be managed by people in the
senior-citizen age group." <g>
A little less facetiously, it pays to remind interviewers of the reassurance
provided by hiring someone with experience. One less thing to worry about.
Of course, the downside of experience is that we alterkockers don't want to
work for beginner's wages. That's a very real and defensible reason for age
discrimination if you're working on a tight budget and have to trade off
between quality and getting the job done on a budget.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is
noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience,
which is the bitterest."--Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478
BCE)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Experience RoboHelp X3! This new RoboHelp release combines single sourcing,
print-quality documentation, conditional text and much more, into the most
monumental release of RoboHelp ever! http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Enhance, optimize and automate your FrameMaker-to-PDF workflow with TimeSavers:
Define all PDF features in your source FrameMaker files ONCE, distill MANY.
Bookmark Controller, Link Controller, UnBloat & more : http://www.microtype.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
