Re: Telecommuting Job Search

[John Garison <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

As the alluded to grizzled one, I have to echo what everyone else is 
saying here. Getting a pure telecommuting job is tough. You have a lot 
of objections to overcome. Many people don't think that it's possible to 
do a good job if you're not right in the middle of things, and in some 
situations, they are absolutely correct. There are occasionally, 
however, joyful convergences when everything comes together propitiously 
to allow such a thing to happen and to succeed.

Here's what it takes, IMHO:

A grizzled writer. A neophyte would not be able to pick up and run and 
do well. It takes experience. As I explain it to potential hiring 
managers, I've done this a large number of times. I can approach and 
learn a new application quickly and figure out what in my bag of doc 
tricks I need to throw at it to get it to stick to the wall (if you'll 
allow me to mangle a few metaphors).

An assertive writer. It's also part of being grizzled, but that 
paragraph was getting too long. You need to be able to handle people. 
You can't be the shy retiring type. You can't be unsure of yourself. You 
have to ooze confidence. I have to be able to convince a hiring manager 
that I can do everything from home that I could if I were in the office 
except go down the hall and peer over the cubicle wall at someone. But I 
tell them I can get someone to do that for me if it becomes necessary.

The right project. There are lots of projects that wouldn't be 
appropriate to do remotely, but a few that would be. Very small or very 
large projects would lend themselves to this - a one-person level of 
effort or some component that is a single person task. Working on a 
multi-author document is more challenging (but not impossible as I have 
done it), but it takes multiple grizzled veterans and lots of planning. 
A responsive development staff is imperative. If your developers won't 
talk to you in the office, they sure as heck won't when you're not there.

There are more reasons and requirements, but if I tell them all to you, 
I might lose out on some work!

My 2¢,

John Garison



Al Geist wrote: