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Subject:Re: How to get that first TW contract From:Dan BRINEGAR <vr2link -at- VR2LINK -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 24 Jul 1997 00:54:33 -0700
Three words, Kristen: Contracts, contracts, contracts..
Two Reasons:
* Many of the even-very-large outfits are in major product transitions
right now (moving from specialized boards-that-don't-sell-anymore to
clones, f'rinstance) and are looking over the walls for TCs who can handle
the new products -- those TCs at the shop below? Some didn't even have
computers at home -- they had worked all their lives on "Dumb"
X-terminals... Firms are outsourcing some or all of Marcomm, technical
communication, IT, etc.
* You as the techwriter have many more opportunities to learn new stuff,
and gain a wider variety of experience (as opposed to some TW's who have
written change pages for the same manual on the same part for their entire
careers -- and *still* don't really know what the thing does -- I've had
the quite devastating privilege of working as a contractor in a shop I'd
always wanted to work in, and all the perms were in exactly that position.
When the entire product line changed six months later, these guys had no
jobs).
A contract or job that lasts more than two years leaves you entirely out
of the loop and behind the power curve: *UNLESS* they hired you to run the
Test, Trends and Prototypes shop... and you have to assume that no matter
*how secure* the job looks when you hire in, there *will* be layoffs and
upheavals.
Everyone in line will titter when you show up at the Pearly Gates and complain
"But I had my gas mask on right!"
[I'm sure there are others on the list who will insist that their job at
Amalgamated CommoDyne will never go away... kewl]
I'm strongly tempted to take Buck's freelance/contract/telecommuting
advice, BTW.... but I need to replace the bunny slippers I wore out on the
last at-home gig....
>Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 20:13:25 -0400
>From: Kristen Case <KLCase -at- AOL -dot- COM>
>Subject: Re: How to get that first TW contract
>
>Buck Buckanan wrote:
>
><<
> After you have a few of these at-home contracts under your belt and feel
> qualified to handle an in-house position, re-write your resume and brag
> on self.
>This seems to imply that Buck feels it's easier to obtain contract work than
>it is to get a full-time job as a techwriter.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dan BRINEGAR, CCDB Vr2Link
Performance S u p p o r t Svcs.
Phoenix, Arizona
vr2link -at- vr2link -dot- com http://www.vr2link.com
"Show up, be there, think it up and do it, exceed your job-description,
control your own means of production (that's yer brain)! "
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