Re: Jobs, the industry, etc.

[Garret Romaine <GRomaine -at- MSMAIL -dot- RADISYS -dot- COM>]

One response was the following:

>I am having very little luck filling our open positions.  Two
>years ago, I received almost 80 resumes in response to my
>call for resumes.  About 10% of these resulted in an interview of
>some kind.  This time around, I received about 25 resumes which
>resulted in a few interviews.

Does anyone have a feeling for the argument that too many good writers are
perfectly happy as contractors? That by working offsite, tending their own
hours, and avoiding a lot of corporate baggage, they are happy to ride out
occasional bumps in the road because they are their own boss? I keep
wondering if that is part of the problem we're having -- not as many people
are interested in going "captive."

>Typically, we hire experienced people who are technically savvy
>and have experience or coursework in programming.  In an
>attempt to generate more applicants, I recently expanded
>the search to include technical communicators of all levels who
>do not necessarily have the technical knowledge we used to seek.
>So far, this change has had no impact.

I would gratefully "grow my own" tech writer if I could find one that I
thought was a fertile garden. But I need those technical skills that set
them apart from refugees from other professions.

>Does anyone have any advice?  Will someone please feel sorry
>for me?  :)

I feel your pain   :-)   (Is this phrase copyrighted yet?)

Garret Romaine
gromaine -at- radisys -dot- com

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