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Almost the only jobs postings around these parts that list pay rates are
often half of the current market value for qualified technical writers.
I'm guessing they're getting a lot of desperate people who have zero
qualifications in the field, because anyone with experience would know
that's a bargain basement rate.
There's also a local company that I applied to back in January that had the
most ridiculous pre-employment screening personality test I've ever taken
(and I took a two day battery of personality tests when I was in school as
part of a match your personality to your career experiment). Their test,
which purported to be based on "typical" business situations, was so odd
and difficult that I almost bailed out it. And I usually ace standardized
tests. But I figured I might as well finish it. Unsurprisingly I turned
out to not match whatever their ideal profile was on the test. It's been
nine months, they're still looking to fill that position. I keep wondering
if I should send that letter that I wrote to HR about how their bad written
test is probably weeding out perfectly qualified candidates. In my case,
it let me know loud and clear that they were not a company that I wanted to
work for.
On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 4:22 PM, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
> There's a lot of truth to this, especially in markets that are heating up
> after several years of employers being able to use "be happy you have a
> job" to get away with low pay and poor working conditions. But pay is not
> the only consideration. Over the years, I have passed on offers that were
> higher than what I was making at the time, or taken pay cuts to work for
> companies where I considered the working environment to be more conducive
> to my being able to go home at night feeling good about my job, and as the
> market continues to improve, I think we'll be seeing people with the
> experience and skills that employers need becoming more picky about which
> job postings they'll hit the "Apply" or "Reply" button for.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
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Julie Stickler
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