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Subject:Re: Predictive success factors (long--sorry) From:Chris Hamilton <chamilton -at- GR -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:25:41 -0600
Eric J. Ray wrote:
> In an effort to head back to an otherwise promising
> discussion, I'd suggest that real SUCCESS FACTORS
> in technical communication (and probably in many other
> areas as well) come down to two things:
> 1) One or more employers who will take a chance on
> an unproven individual _and_ will give that
> person a chance to really grow and develop.
> 2) One or more people (mentors, of sorts) who will
> support, help, advise, and encourage.
> These presuppose a highly motivated, hard working,
> technically educable, literate, well-read, prospective
> technical communicator.
All true, but the job has to be the right one for it. When we hire
another writer, we'll have more flexibility in that direction because
I'm already here. But if my employers took a chance on an unproven
individual to fill my job, there's a 99.9 percent chance that person
wouldn't have made it.
The product we're developing is a multi-tier distributed application
server written in Java, but with C, ActiveX, ODBC, and web interfaces.
Unless you're the Fred Lynn of technical writing (a rookie who is an
MVP), you wouldn't have made it. It's not the right opportunity for a
beginner. I've been at it for a while and it was the most major effort
I've ever made just to keep up. And I only made it because I have a
strong technical background.
The hiring manager and his or her managers have to be intelligent about
finding spots for beginners. They have to set them up to succeed.
Unfortunately, with to cost-cutting still being important, that might
not be always be the case.
--
Chris Hamilton, Senior Technical Writer
Greenbrier & Russel
847.330.4146 http://www.gr.com
chamilton -at- gr -dot- com
-------------------------
The contents of this message do not reflect the views of Greenbrier &
Russel, Inc.
