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Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out?
Subject:Re: For those who hire... what makes a resume stand out? From:Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sat, 14 Jul 2001 13:08:46 -0700 (PDT)
> Andrew struck a chord with me here. I have been a senior level technical
> writer for several years, but prospective employers still want to pay me
> less than half of what a senior technical writer should be paid. Their
> reasoning: If you can type, you can do technical writing. When they find
> someone willing to accept their ridiculously low salary, the person can
> do
> little else besides type, and probably isn't very good at that. Then the
> employer says "Gee, Technical Writers are dumb!
Yes, its a real problem Joyce. Its a self-fulfilling prophecy. Companies
get burned by bad writers, so they get real stingy about who they will
hire. They hire inexperienced writers who burn them even further. Then
they call an experienced person and think they can apply the same "you're
a moron" attitude to a skilled person. Thus begins a cycle of
mistreatment/resentment.
The only way out of this mess is to really impress your employer and go
above and beyond the call of duty. It won't always work, but decent places
will notice your hard work and fight to keep you on board.
Also, its an economic reality - support staff are always the first to get
canned when times are bad. The fact is, tech writing is often seen as
supporting engineering and/or marketing and as such, is the first on the
axe.
This underscores the need for senior level writers to hone their skills to
be good at things outside the realm of writing. I have a client that I do
a lot of graphics work for. Whenever they need a new splash screen for a
product or some diagrams for the web site - they call on me. By
diversifying my skills, I can mold my skills to demand and keep myself and
my company alive during lean times.
Andrew Plato
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