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Subject:Re: credibility (longish but IMO worth reading) From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 10 Oct 2003 08:50:24 -0600
While this post offers a rare look inside Gooberworld, it seems like your
basic complaints are the same that any tech writer encounters:
Nobody understands what we do.
Nobody cares.
Hiring practices aren't fair or objective.
People can get hired or passed over based on dubious criteria.
Reality bites.
You're right on all counts. But rather than dwelling on these as things to
be bummed about, to me it makes more sense to acknowledge these as truths,
and to factor them into how we work and/or look for work.
I think there are more people out there with "jobs nobody cares about"
than there are people with high-profile jobs. Get used to it. Public
apathy towards those jobs does NOT mean they're unnecessary.
The world needs tech writers, plumbers, highway engineers, and people who
put the goo inside eclairs. These workers may not get much glory, but
their absence would be conspicuous. As long as I can keep convincing
people to pay me money to sit inside air-conditioned buildings, seldom
doing anything more strenuous than pulling my Webster's off the shelf, I'm
happy to be in this line of work.
If you want glory, this is the wrong profession. But if you want a pretty
good buck-per-ounce-of-sweat ratio, this gig is tough to beat. Although
I've still got my eye on that wine-critic job...
Hang in there, Goob. Uh, can I call you Goob? <g>
-Keith Cronin
who can be found on Google saying all sorts of crap. Oh well.
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