RE: permalancers

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Technical Writer wrote:
  
> >From a manager's point of view, the idea that a technical 
> writer "adds value"--except in the most simplistic sense--is 
> more wishful thinking than reality in most fields that 
> require documentation. That is a major problem for technical 
> writers who want to stay employed; the skill sets needed to 
> get the job may be considerably less than the skill sets 
> required to keep the jobs. The notion that a few months of 
> experience repeated a dozen or more times is somehow 
> invaluable is misguided, if not plain silly. 

I suppose, if you're focused entirely on skills and dismiss knowledge as
unimportant, and if you think of a tech writing career as just a
sequence of short-term assignments doing rote work in fields you know
nothing about, this may make some sense. And if that's your perspective,
I suppose "adds value" is indeed a foreign concept. 

Some of us have a different perspective. Fortunately, so do our
employers. That's why they pay us the big bucks. :-) 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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