RE: Rates (was The Lone Writer)

["Darren Barefoot" <darren -dot- barefoot -at- capeclear -dot- com>]

Hi,
I totally agree with regards to the lack of graphics and HTML skills
among technical writers. A year ago, Ms. Ray posted this poll
(http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/polls/techwhirlpollresults.php3?pollID
=99), which indicated that less than 18% of technical writers had online
portfolios. Presumably that number has gone up, but clearly the vast
majority of writers don't have Web sites. If I'm a hiring manager who's
looking for HTML skills, if you don't have a Web site, I'm going to be
highly skeptical of your abilities.

I've worked with 6 technical writers in the last three years. Only two
of them could hand-code an HTML page, and none of them would be adroit
enough with Visio, PhotoShop, FireWorks et al to make
professional-quality images.

I'm a good example of what Mr. Cronin's talking about. I work for a
start-up and, as such (and as a symptom of my current job description)
I'm expected to be a factotum for the whole company. I'm happy to
occasionally be the graphic guy or the layout guy or the Web guy or the
marketing guy or the support guy because I know it increases my value to
the company. Case in point: I recently declared that I was leaving
Ireland to return to my home and native land, the true north strong and
free. After management had a couple of days to mull it over, they
decided they'd like to employee as a remote consultant. Presumably this
wasn't because I'm such a nice guy, but rather because they looked at
the job description and said "where are we going to get this guy?" 

As an aside that follows on to Mr. Plato's regular polemics about domain
knowledge, I can pretty much guarantee that I've been retained because
of my particular domain knowledge. They could find somebody who can do
all my tasks, but they'd have a  hard time finding somebody who can do
all my tasks and who has my familiarity with emerging Internet
technologies. This kind of discounts the preceding three paragraphs.
However, in my experience, learning to use FireWorks is a heck of a lot
easier than learning the basics of, say, genetic engineering.

Darren Barefoot
http://www.darrenbarefoot.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-118566 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com 
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-118566 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf 
> Of kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com
> Sent: 28 January 2003 13:14
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Rates (was The Lone Writer)
> 
> Case in point: I am continually amazed at how many tech 
> writers do not know HTML, or have absolutely no knowledge of 
> graphics programs. Many companies have cut their publications 
> departments to the bone, and you can't count on having a 
> "layout guy" or a "graphics guy" or a "web guy" - but YOU can 
> take a shot at being that guy.


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