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> This is a very timely topic for me too (same kind of story in
> Beijing). Please post any replies to the list.
>
> When the issue first raised a few version ago, I could only
> find American expats who can do tech writing but don't speak
> any Chinese, so that was not an option as the writer must
> communicate with the dev team there. In the mean time the
> local QA person did the writing and we were quite pleased
> with the results. Of course, we needed to edit it, but it was
> better than we expected. Now, they want to free this person
> to do his real job, QA, and find a writer, so we are back to square 0.
Ask the QA person if he has any relatives or acquaintances (perhaps from his cohort at university or technical college) or professional association co-members whom he thinks could do that part of the job as well as he does, and might be interested. Hint (or allow him to assume) that not coming up with somebody is fine - they might not exist - but if he does present someone, their performance would be a reflection on him. So, maybe negotiate (with your bosses) a finder's fee/recruitment bonus to be paid to him after three or six months, if the new hire works out.
Also, as somebody suggested in the UI thread, see if you can find out what your competitors and other tech companies in the area are doing for tech-writing talent. If the compensation differential between your location and the Beijing office is sufficient, then there's probably some room for a bit of a premium, so consider poaching proven talent from competitors and neighbors. :-)
- Kevin
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