Tips and/or Suggestions for bidding on telecommute contracts & telephone interviews??

[sclarke -at- nucleus -dot- com]

Hello everyone:

I'm a fairly "newbie" independent contractor and am possibly being
considered for a telecommuting tech writing contract. The contract is six
months with the opportunity to work from home.(That's been my idea of
nirvana for quite some time.) I'm wondering if anyone would care to
venture some tips or suggestions on standard protocols for this sort of
thing?

For example...the hiring company is based out of Vancouver, British
Columbia (Canada) and I'm in the next province over. How should I manage a
request for writing samples? Just send electronic copies? Should I pdf.
some of my docs? There could also be an issue surrounding permissions and
so I might not be able to send electronic versions of some docs if asked

For example, I did some work for a local municipal government and received
permission to use print copies in my portfolio but was told they must be
marked "Property of x, y, x used with permission of my former boss". Also
I was clearly told that copies of these docs could *not* be left with
potential employers/prospective clients. Naturally, I want to honour those
sorts of agreements.

My guess too is that, if they're really interested, there will be some
sort of telephone interview. I've never done one of those before. Does
anyone have any tips or suggestions that I should keep in mind. Any do's
or do nots? Are there certain protocols? Are there any significant
differences in your collective experience between face to face interviews
and a telephone interview? In how they're conducted? etc.?

What if it's a conference call/multi-party type of interview? Does this
happen? Anyone had experience with this before?

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, comments or advice. I want to be as
well prepared as possible.

Thanks
Sara-Sue from Canada

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!

Order RoboHelp X3 in December and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
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.