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.
Subject:RE: FWD: Good Company Fit From:Karen Field <kfield -at- STELLCOM -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Apr 2000 11:03:03 -0700
Angela brings up some good questions to ask. Another way to find out about a
company's turnover rate is to read the classifieds each week. I habitually
read the classifieds every week, even when I'm very happily employed. I
started this practice to stay informed about what tools tech writers are
expected to know. But as 've done this, I've noticed a trend: Certain
companies in my city place ads for tech writers about every six months. This
tells me that they have a hard time keeping employees. (Reading classifieds
for other jobs in your field, such as programmers or DBAs, might reveal the
same info about a company.) Generally, companies don't expand their tech
comm departments that consistently, so when I see these ads I conclude that
there's trouble in "paradise."
Karen Field
Sr. Technical Writer
Stellcom, Inc.
kfieldatstellcomdotcom
-----Original Message-----
From: angela pollak [mailto:angela -dot- pollak -at- sybase -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 10:35 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: FWD: Good Company Fit
This sort of gets at your concerns tactfully, without sounding too thick...I
hope it helps.
One question I've learned the hard way to *always* ask at interviews is "Is
this a new position, or are you filling a vacancy?"
If they answer "new position", consider the following:
- stability of the company... are they fickle? Will they decide tomorrow
that they no longer need the position?
- how well is the job defined? You may need to be flexible if their
expectations change.
- Is this a great opportunity to climb the ladder, or will you be
perpetually digging yourself out of a hole?
If they answer "filling a vacancy", consider the following:
- why did the other person leave? promotion? lateral move? better
pay/job/social climate elsewhere? conflict of some sort?
Depending on the answers, you can fine tune your other questions to zero in
on what you've heard. Keep in mind that neither answer is right or wrong. It
just depends entirely on what you're hoping for in a job. Make sure you
decide what you want first. Any question you ask will sound thick, if you
don't know what you want.
Other questions you can ask include those along the lines of 'What is the
turnover rate?'...You kind of have to feel the situation out, but a couple
carefully thought out questions can at least flag potential issues with
corporate stability and social climate.
Good luck...
~Angela~
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sponsored by Weisner Associates Inc., Online Information Services
Training & consulting for RoboHELP, Dreamweaver, HTML, and HTML-Based Help.
More info at http://www.weisner.com/train/ or mailto:training -at- weisner -dot- com -dot-
Your web site in 32 languages? Maybe not now, but sooner than you think.
Contact ForeignExchange for the FREE paper, "3 steps to successful
translation management" (http://www.fxtrans.com/3steps.html?tw).
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: kfield -at- STELLCOM -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-21175F -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
