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Subject:Re: FWD: Help! New Job, No Docs, Big Company From:Stephen Gillespie <scgillespie1 -at- FEDEX -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 2 Oct 1998 11:18:46 -0500
Luke, may the force TRULY be with you! --because I've jumped into such
an "oral society" before -- and it's a long way down. An engineer and I
started a pubs group from scratch in a start-up R&D org for the Japanese
about 6 yrs ago. It was one of the most challenging enterprises I've
ever taken on, because there was virtually NO documentation, unless it
was in Japanese, of course. I was succesful in building an excellent
product docs team, but as all good things ..., I saw it was time to bail
a couple years ago (good thing, too, since the foreign econ soured, my
old group gutted from 6 to 1!).
BTW, your closing remark about "ten jobs" is very telling...
my best advice is to simply start small (i.e., be VERY careful what you
promise), and build on your successes.
(know this sounds like cliche, but it's a true fact!)