Re: Proprietary Information.

["Marybeth S." <marybeth -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM>]

As a technical writer also responsible for hiring new writers for my
team, I was very interested in this posting. When I was out job hunting,
I was very frustrated to realize that some of my best writing and web
development work was proprietary and/or secure. I wanted to use some of
these pieces for my portfolio and had a hassle with my conscience over
it.

What I eventually did was gain approval from one of the companies to use
a chapter from a manual that I wrote as a writing sample. I included
with that writing sample a letter from the company stating that they had
given me expressed permission to utilize it. The places I interviewed
for jobs, without exception, commented to me on my prudence in obtaining
such permission and many even told me stories about rejecting applicants
for providing writing samples that had "confidential", "proprietary",
"for internal use only", even one that apparently read "secret clearance
required".

I use that same standard in judging my own applicants. If someone who
wants a job on my team shows so little consideration and judgement as to
take a proprietary document from his or her last company, what will be
done to us?

Marybeth Simon
Senior Technical Writer
Science Applications International Corporation
http://www.saic.com

>Since the job required writing skills, the Director requested writing
>samples from each job applicant. One outside candidate submitted a
>sample document, which was clearly marked as proprietary information
>belonging to a Bellcore competitor company. The document was
>subsequently returned to the competitor company. The candidate was not
>hired."
>
>Just some food for thought. Sometimes that little proprietary statement
>at the bottom/top of a document is taken seriously.


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