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Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out?
Subject:Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out? From:"K. Joyce McDonald" <KJoyceMcDonald -at- satx -dot- rr -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 13 Jul 2001 16:59:34 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Plato" <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
>
> Let's not forget that companies hire you because they need something...and
> its not a friend. They need capability and skill. And part of assessing
> that is looking at a person and saying "what can you do for us."
>
> I also think this is an outgrowth of "Burnism." So many companies have
> been so badly burned by incompetent tech writers that they are hesitant to
> hire anybody without running them through the ringer. I get it too. I meet
> with new clients and they treat me like crap. Its just part of the game -
> you have to prove yourself FIRST. Then you get loved.
>
> Andrew Plato
>
> __________________________________________________
Andrew struck a chord with me here. I have been a senior level technical
writer for several years, but prospective employers still want to pay me
less than half of what a senior technical writer should be paid. Their
reasoning: If you can type, you can do technical writing. When they find
someone willing to accept their ridiculously low salary, the person can do
little else besides type, and probably isn't very good at that. Then the
employer says "Gee, Technical Writers are dumb!
I worked with one junior-level writer that was so incompetent that in spite
of his 11-hour days, he never produced a finished product in the six months
he was with us. When he was laid off, my work load decreased exponentially
because after he left, I only had to do his job (in addition to my own).
Before he left, I spent a lot of my time babysitting him AND doing his job.
Even when you get that well-paid Senior Technical Writer/Documentation
Manager position, you don't get away from the "Tech Writers are Dumb"
attitude. I was "downsized" a month ago, meaning that the Research and
Development department had NO documentation department when I left. When the
VP of R & D broke the news to me (at 2 PM) he told me that my employment was
terminated, effective immediately. Then he asked me if, in addition to
packing, I would teach the new proposal writer to use RoboHelp before I
left.
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TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
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