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.
> Sometimes when a company has had a writer for a long time... When the
> company has to hire a replacement, they don't know how. It can take a while
> for the company to learn about what they actually need in a writer.
>
> Sometimes interviewers make decisions about writers based on reasons that
> for one reason or another they just don't want to share. Here are
> some examples of reasons, ranging from legitimate to illegal:
> >
> > - Someone within the company discovered that a writer with whom
> they have previous experience is available and they want to hire that
> writer (I think this is legitimate and when a hiring manager has shared
> this information
>
> with me it made sense to me, however some people would make excuses
rather than honestly share this reason).
> > - Someone on the team thinks that the writer is not a good fit for
> the team (this can be, but is not always a legitimate reason).
> > - The writer came in for an interview and is older than expected,
> so an excuse is fabricated (this is what I meant by illegal).
>
The company in question has had but one technical writer in their history;
she was there five years. I've seen her LinkedIn profile and wasn't
particularly impressed with her credentials. BUT... the company appears to
be very male oriented, and perhaps they liked seeing her smiling face every
day. That said, I also know from another interviewer that they were not
impressed when she tried pushing SharePoint as a CMS on them. She
apparently hadn't done any research and it was a bad fit. It may have led
to her moving on, although the reason I've been given is that she wanted to
be closer to her family.
As for me, I've been working in the Greater Sacramento region since 2002,
with one 7-month gig in Oakland and a short-term, virtual contract position
with a company in Pleasanton. I casually follow business in the Bay
Area/Silicon Valley and have applied/interviewed at several companies there
over the past many years. But now we're relocating to NY to be closer to
family members there. A few months ago I learned of this opening via
Glassdoor and wrote a LinkedIn InMail to the company's new president. He
put me on to their internal HR guy, and things have progressed very nicely
from there.
I remain a prime candidate. I've had phone interviews with six individuals
there, including the president (who, like me, had a successful run with HP
in CA). Also like me, one of the key interviewers grew up in SE Michigan;
his school and mine competed in intermural sporting events. That
commonality put in me in good stead as you can imagine.
The second BUT is that the person who wrote what I posted yesterday may
indeed have another candidate *he* favors. Or he isn't 100% convinced I'm
the best fit. Now the company is flying me to their location in two weeks
for a face-to-face. I don't believe that this individual holds the deciding
vote, but if I get an offer then I will have to learn to work with him,
hopefully winning him over in time.
The third BUT is that everyone there (the interviewers) appears to be in
the 40 â 50 age bracket. I'm 61 with gray hair that I lightly touch-up with
dye (especially eyebrows and mustache) so as not to look like a gruff old
man (or Santa Claus). I have to practice smiling prior to greeting people.
However, I have a photo on my LinkedIn profile and, because I'm a premium
account holder, know that a number of the aforementioned guys have
thoroughly checked out my profile there. They shouldn't be surprised, then,
when an "old man" shows up at their place in a few weeks.
I've convinced myself that the heart of the question posed to me yesterday
really pertains to TQM/Six Sigma. The parent company advertises that they
are a Kaizen organization. From what little research I've been able to
conduct this morning, Kaizen is nothing more than a rebranding of Deming's
business principlesâinitially rejected here in the U.S. by the Big 3
automakers (among others), but thoroughly embraced by Toyota and other
Japanese companies many years ago. (This is essentially how Japan Inc.
cleaned Detroit's clock.) I'm planning on leap-frogging off of this,
proposing that the company (where I'm interviewing) bring in a Six Sigma
consultant. Then whatever is the outcome of that, I can help implement
through whatever media is appropriate. As I told one of interviewers on the
phone, the problem isn't that Johnny can't read, it's that Johnny *won't*
read. No flashy instructional aide is going to solve that problem by itself.
> Chris
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Read about how Georgia System Operation Corporation improved teamwork, communication, and efficiency using Doc-To-Help | http://bit.ly/1pJ4zPa
