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Ah, here we are at the crux of the matter, the source of many of the things
we go on and on about in here...
Bill DuBay Wrote:
>How can people know you are good? That is the question. Can you depend upon
>the interviewing company to have a clear knowledge of how to recognize a good
>writer?
Uh-huh, the heart of the matter! This is the big problem, the reason many
of us (well, me at least) sometimes *hate* job-hunting... why we sometimes
let-fly at "clueless" job postings.
It *is* enormously frustrating to deal with, as Andy Malcom put it "those
who are not skilled
technical communicators themselves."
The most unsatisfying thing for me is dealing with agents or prospective
employers who don't get to see the whole package at once. You can send a
great resume, or tell 'em everything you can think of about yourself over
the phone, but if they don't get it, they don't get it... "Aitchteeyemell?
How do you spell that? is it a Microsoft product?"
Bill Continues:
> I would like to apply for a job with all the armaments possible, my
>portfolio, my resume, my good looks, my powers of persuasion. But especially
>important would be a certificate from my professional peers testifying that I
>have the skills they consider essential. That would be very satisfying to me.
Ah, aha... the *most* satisfying thing for me has been a *reference* from
my peers and mentors testifying that I have the essential whatevers.... now
that I'm getting to the point where I'm giving references for people I've
trained or worked with, and my *customers* are recommending me or people
I've mentored, it's even more more satisfying....
This relates directly, and finally to "powers of persuasion."
Certification still can't tell you or your potential customer whether you'd
be good at the job; neither can portfolio, resume, website, good looks (or
lack thereof), and customer/mentor/peer testimonials; we all use our powers
of persuasion to clinch the deal... (I'm a contractor, and don't ever
expect to work someplace more than a year, so YMMV -- if I managed to get a
job because all the right boxes got checked by HR, and I didn't speak to
the actual customer until I showed up for work, I'm fairly certain the
chances are I'd hate the job).
Using my power to persuade, I can either fire them up, convince 'em I can
learn to use RoboBeans 2.0 for BSD within four hours, or I'll scare them to
death... at that point *both* of us know how we're gonna do.
If they're so clueless as to be unable to let me get the change to enchant
them or scare them, I don't mind that I'll never get that chance to
pursuade them or work with them -- we already know neither of us would be
happy with me there.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dan BRINEGAR, CCDB Vr2Link
Leveraging Institutional Memory through Contextual
Digital Asymptotic Approximations of Application Processes suited to
utilization by Information-Constrained, Self-Actualizing
Non-Technologists.
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