TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
My name is CHris, I'm new to this list, and have been a tech
writer for approx 12 years now. The last 8 years were spent
working on FrameMaker for Frame Tech, then later for Adobe.
I am now contracting, and I want to work remotely. In fact,
I'm interested in being so remote, I'm working from Spain.
I believe I have something to offer... I made the Maker
4.0/5.0 help systems, worked on user docs, API docs,
Maker+SGML docs, have worked with HTML & CGI, and have
developed Maker API clients and SGML In/Out clients.
My questions: Has anybody had luck (good or bad) either
working remotely or managing remote workers? And does
anybody have strong opinions either way as to whether or not
it should work?
My experience up to now has been that people are reluctant
to hire me for a long-term job, and I seem to get those one
or two-week crises that drive you nuts and make it
impossible to plan a life. Basically, nobody else is
interested in hurting his head quite that much, so I get the
job and turn it around in time. I get lots of responses to
my resume that end with, "Let us know when you'll be in the
States." So I assume (optimistically) that I'm employable,
but that the world just isn't ready for the non-office.
Anybody care to predict when it will be ready?
