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> I am receiving a smaller number than usual of applicants. My
> problem is
> applicants whose experience includes technical writing
> interleaved with
> experience in other fields, such as writing specifications
> (engineering)
> or business plans and presentations (that's a gray area). Then they
> bloat up their total years of experience as Tech Writers. I also
> interviewed a fully qualified technical writer who once worked for IBM
> but is totally unqualified for work in Information Technology (now
> that's a paradox) because he wrote chiefly reference
> documentation that
> I have not seen for 25 years. The man is only in his mid
> thirties and is
> totally out of date!
You seem to have very specific, narrow requirements regarding experience
and skills. That's fine, but you're mistakenly assuming that only your
narrow definition is real technical writing. As others have pointed out,
spell out what the successful candidate must _do_ rather than what he
must _be_. IOW, as in user manuals, focus on the tasks, not the
features.
As for getting fewer applicants than usual, it's a very tight labor
market in general. We're looking for engineers and QA people, and
getting fewer applicants, too. And the good ones are demanding (and
getting) high salaries.
The economy is humming along with unemployment under 5% and wages rising
significantly (I believe the average was 6 or 7% in the past year), so
I'm not surprised that it's a seller's market in most professions.
But then, I don't get my economic news from the alternate realities of
DailyKos and Democratic Underground. ;-)
Richard
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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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