Re: WANTED: Good Staffing Agency for Tech Writers

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"Kim Thornton" wrote ...
 
> I have been employed with my current company for the last three years. 
> Although I'm thankful to have a job, I am starting to get restless. I was 
> thinking about looking into becoming a consultant/contract for a staffing 
> agency because I wanted to work on different types of projects and not 
> just write about the same products (really maintain existing documents) 
> which I am doing now. Its not that I'm not busy, I'm just looking for a 
> little more variety. Is there such a company out there that provides decent 
> benefits and would offer me the varied type of work I'm looking for? I've 
> worked as a contractor once before for a smaller agency and the downside 
> was the lack of benefits and not being paid on the days I didn't work. Am 
> I living in la-la land or does such a agency exist.

It sounds like you're looking for a consulting firm, not a staffing agency.
Staffing agencies just place people into jobs either on contract or permanent.
They rarely have an extended relationship with the people they place. 

Consulting firms can offer what you're looking for. And yes, they can offer a
wide array of challenging and differing projects. I've worked in consulting for
10+ years. Its fun.

However, its also very, very different from working a full time job at a
company. There are also none or very, very few that do only tech writing.
You're much more likely to hook up with a niche consulting firm or a large,
consulting firm. 

One of the big differences is in how work is done, managed, and handled. I
won't go into all the details, because that would take many pages of text. Some
things you can expect:

1. Consulting firms generally want people of a certain personality type.
Passive, wallflower types rarely do well in consulting. 

2. Varied work means varied deliverables. It also means varied methods. While
consulting companies are fond of selling their methods as their benefit, the
reality is - every client is different and must be handled appropriately. 

3. You have to be at the top of the game in your niche. That means being well
ahead of your clients in skill in whatever your consulting firm does. I do
security work, it means I have to be way ahead of the average IT person on
issues of security. Nobody wants to hire a consultant who knows less than them
(although there are plenty of places that try to get away with this.)

4. Tech writers are seen as support components in projects. They usually have
low billable rates in comparison to engineers or full-consultants. As such, it
can be very difficult to get respect and high-pay at consulting firms. You
really need to move beyond traditional tech writing work into being a
consultant. 

These are the first thoughts off the top of my head. 

Good luck in whatever you do. 

Andrew Plato 



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