TechWhirler Recap for November 5

[INKtopia Admin <admin -at- inktopia -dot- net>]

This week’s update is supported by Platinum sponsor Adobe & RoboHelp 9 |
http://goo.gl/mWtcM



It’s time for this week’s update and judging by the thermometer around here
– it’ll be the hottest one so far.  (Yes, we fought the urge to use an
exclamation point, aka period with a long line over it, aka oh, uh, we can’t
think of another aka and that was last week’s discussion topic anyway).



Now, onto the often reviewed, sometimes kicked-out and occasionally
commented on – TechWhirler Update.  This week brought to you in full color
and with air conditioning.



Normally, us TechWhirlers are good-time rock ‘en rollers who want peace, luv
and a warm puppy.  See, we’re the ones who drone on about the virtues of
collaboration, working together and positive reinforcement in the workplace.
But not this week.  This week, it’s black hat time with soon-to-be-famous
SWU writer Cheryl Volshin’s instant classic *Top 10 Ways to a Terrible
Workplace* (goo.gl/ln2v6).



Originally, we thought she was submitting ideas to us on how to build
TechWhirl as an organization, but later figured out that she was using irony
rather than being literal.  Who knows, maybe that’s why one of us got
ourselves thrown out of the *Technical Writer
Forum<http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory?itemaction=mclk&anetid=112571&impid=&pgkey=anet_search_results&actpref=anetsrch_name&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=%2Egdr_1311347093715_1>
* on LinkedIn.  Before you ask, no, we don’t know why.



Now, back to our commentary: The darn article would have been super uber
funny (instead of merely uber funny) if sadly it wasn’t so true for many
people and companies out there today. While we can’t do much about your work
situation, we can provide ideas for an escape route.



One such escape route would be scoring the interview through a killer cover
letter (and resume). To help with that process, our classic article for this
week is by Tom Murrell *Get More Interviews with a T-Letter *(goo.gl/dum1D).
It’ll help structure your writing to meet the needs of the interviewer and
get you from the long list to the short list in the candidate pool.  This
way, when you do get that next job you can either: a) flee your current work
environment; or b) get the chance to be the terrible boss you always wanted
to be’ or c) what did we miss? oh yeah, become a great boss.



We have another full week of career month left.  What’s on tap?  A nice
little article on how to get into Technical Writing and some other goodies
that are a surprise.



Have a great weekend!



Sincerely,

The friendly and sometimes moderated folks @ TechWhirl.



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What You’re Talking About

Quick shout outs to our Tech Writers and their discussions:



   - The “How to Talk to SME’s” discussion is still going strong after more
      than a week, with some excellent if somewhat facetious advice
from Eddy Skau
      and John Garrison
      - David Harrison is looking for answers to the question “Is Adobe
      InDesign good for ‘write-once-use-many’?” and the ability to handle
      structured authoring.
      - Wendy Lewis found some answers to her issues with “Adobe X
      Commenting” to support her controlled review process—the features are
      available, but in different locations than previous versions.

In Case You Missed it: This Week @ TechWhirl

   - New: ‘Top 10 Ways to a Terrible Workplace” by Cheryl Voloshin
   - Classic: “Get More Interviews with a T-Letter” by Tom Murrell
   - Poll question: Most important quality in a manager | techwhirl.com

Upcoming Events & Articles

   - New: “Sliding into Technical Writing” by Craig Cardimon
   - Classic: “Establishing Yourself as a Contractor” by Bruce Byfield
   - Poll question: What factors are most important when moving into
   contracting/freelancing?

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special “thank you” to sponsors.   Without them, the
entire site would be in black and white because we couldn’t afford a color
version…



*Platinum*: ComponentOne, Madcap, Adobe

*Gold*: Society for Technical Communication (STC), EC Software

*Silver*: Vancouver Island University



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this since 1993 but trust us, it’s a nice courtesy
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