Re: (fwd) A sobering encounter

["Gary S. Callison" <huey -at- interaccess -dot- com>]

On Sun, 1 Dec 2002, craig -dot- cardimon -at- att -dot- net wrote:
> I went to a local Pick Slip Party and met a company recruiter. I
> inquired about technical writing positions. 
> He shook his head, saying, "We got rid of them all. All they do is write. 
> Anyone can do that."
> When I asked who does their documentation, he answered, "The
> engineers." I made  another inquiry. He replied, shrugging, "Ahh, they
> muddle through it."
> "Muddle" is the exact word he used. From his overall attitude,
> documentation was an afterthought, and not much through was put into
> it in the first place.
> For a career changer, this was not encouraging. Anyone care to relate a
> more positive encounter?

Seven months ago, I was hired into my first pure tech writer position by
someplace very similar to this company, except with smarter management. 

I went to a local pick slip party and met a company recruiter. I had a
couple technical writing bullets on my one-size-fits-all resume, but
mostly I went there with resumes specifically slanted to positions at the
companies that I knew would be there. 20 slanted resumes bought me three
or four serious chats and the rest "we'll get back to you", and then I
started working the rest of the room with my 'generic' resume.

Met a company recruiter for a small company I'd never heard of. They had
no network or systems jobs open that I fit, but they were looking for a
tech writer, so I asked about that.

"All of our documentation is currently written by programmers, and both
the writing and the coding is suffering as a result. We want writers to
write and coders to code."

I love it here. It's a wonderful gig. Don't lose hope. They're out there.

-- 
Huey



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