RE: WANTED: Good Staffing Agency for Tech Writers

[Bill McDonald <BillM -at- sakson -dot- com>]

Hi Kim,

I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself.  My name is Bill
McDonald.  I am a technical recruiter for Sakson and Taylor in Seattle
Washington.  www.sakson.com

I couldn't find your personal alias in my Inbox so I hope you get this mail
through techwr-l.

It sounds like Andrew has a lot of experience in technical communications
and explained the expectations of somebody working in a consultant role
fairly well.

I wanted to let you know, our company employs people in both a contractor
(onsite at the company) and temporary consultant role.  (working in our
company on outsourced solutions)  We also place permanent employees.  Here
are comparisons of both sides of our business.  I hope it's helpful!  ;~)  

Our business consists of two divisions:
1.	S&T Onsite - This portion of our business provides staffing
solutions to a wide range of Industries.  Most of the business we do is in
the Seattle, "Puget Sound" region.  (This includes the world-leading
software company headquartered in Redmond WA)  We place professionals in all
walks of technical communications, IT and media.  I can assure you that I
don't just "place people into jobs".  I have been with S&T for 3 years.  A
key ingredient to being successful at what I do, involves building strong
relationships with both my candidates and clients.  I have a huge pipeline
of clients that come back to me with hiring needs (mostly
contingent...sometimes permanent).  As you can see, it is necessary for me
to have an extended relationship with the talent I work with because clients
usually ask me about availability of individuals that have done past work
for their team.  Our "re-deploy" (finding more work for people) process is a
very good one.  When the jobs are coming in, it is not un-common for people
to have back to back assignments.    

2.	S&T Consulting - This portion of our business provides an outsourced
solution for clients.  We'll handle a whole project or complement any team.
We have both permanent and contingent consultants aboard our team in
Seattle, Boise and Vancouver WA.  If a project comes in, and we don't have
resources with bandwidth or the right technical skills to work on the
deliverables, our project managers come to our recruiting division with
requests for temporary consultants.

Feel free to contact me offline with any further questions Kim (or any
others who are interested)     

Take care!  

Bill McDonald
Technical Recruiter
S&T OnSite, a division of Sakson & Taylor
Work 206.545.3625
Fax 206.632.6927
www.sakson.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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