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From: "Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare, consultant)"
<Madelyn -dot- Boudreaux -at- ge -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Movie: "The Technical Writer" and personality
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Now, there is nothing wrong with writing specs for slot-machines.
>However, I could tell this comment, and the way it was delivered,
>had given the class that stereotypical image - add "deadly dull"
>to the list. I took every opportunity I could to disabuse them of the
>idea. I think I succeeded.
Hardly any job anyone does for a living sounds exciting in a 1-sentence
statement.
Even the ones that *sound* exciting rarely are.
This is why I don't tell people what I do for a living, I tell them what
I do for fun.
Compare:
"I edit engineering documents,"
to
"I am an announcer for a women's roller derby league, a goth club DJ, a
photographer, and an artist. To pay the mortgage I am a tech writer and
editor."
As you can imagine, no one hears anything past the fun stuff, and I
never have to talk about work. (Even during my recent interview process,
I spent a lot of time talking about roller derby. That I'm the league's
graphic and web designer, and I write a lot of their copy, didn't hurt.)
Work to live, don't live to work!
- Madelyn
-----------------------------------------
I remember a friend of mine once had a get-together at which everyone
was supposed to tell the group something about themselves -- but NOT
what they did for a living. I wondered at the time why he disallowed
that, but I guess this is why -- because it's the least interesting
thing you can say about yourself.
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