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Donna Marino reports: <<I've been unemployed since December, and
although I've diligently looked for a job, nothing has come up.>>
Sympathies. It's been a tough few years for many people in our
community.
<<I don't even hear back from employers when I send them my resume. And
if I do, their rates are ridiculously low. Is anyone else experiencing
the same thing? I'm wondering if this is just my experience or the
state of the market in general.>>
I've heard similar stories, so I suspect that we're in one of those
uncomfortable periods of uncertainty in which employers are huddling
around the campfire, hoping the wolves will stay away and throwing out
an occasional sacrificial victim to feed the wolves. Plus, as a
profession, we've done a lousy job of demonstrating our value to the
people who make hiring decisions, so employers don't see us as the kind
of strategic asset they should be hiring when times are tough.
One piece of good advice that I can offer is that you should seek ways
to avoid competing for work with all the other technical writers in
your community. For example, if much of the traditional work in your
area has been computer hardware and software, look for work in the
financial services or pharmaceutical sectors. The April 2005 issue of
STC's _Intercom_ had a decent article on this kind of work, and if
you're in the U.S. and willing to learn a bit about Sarbanes-Oxley,
there's apparently lots of work in this area.
The trick is to spend a few days thinking about the subject areas that
most fascinate you and brainstorming to discover who is doing work in
this area. My niche, for example, has always been in scientific
editing. I've always loved the sciences, went through grad school on a
science scholarship, and have always worked in the sciences. As well,
I've always enjoyed working with ESL authors. This was clearly the area
I needed to research.
When I went freelance a year back, I contacted every peer-reviewed
journal whose subject matter I even vaguely understood (there are ca.
15K journals out there... really!) and told them I wanted to work with
their problem authors "to provide you with manuscripts so well written
you only need to think about the science". I emphasized that this would
be an arm's length agreement: the journal would do nothing more than
give the authors my brochure (PDF format), with no indication that they
approved my work in any way. It was purely a "your English is not
acceptable to this journal, so before you resubmit your manuscript,
have it edited by a pro; here's one person who can do this work for
you".
I'm now busier than I've ever been as a result of this marketing work.
Not only are the journals pleased with the results, but authors are
referring me to their colleagues at a ferocious rate. Lesson number 1
of this anecdote is discovering what you're passionate about. Lesson
number 2 is that the best jobs aren't advertised: you have to find
someone who doesn't even know that they need you, and demonstrate that
you can make their lives so much easier that it's a no-brainer to hire
you.
So ask yourself a few difficult questions: What field of work
fascinates you most? Who is doing work in this field? Why should they
hire you to do the work for them?
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