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Subject:RE: Joing STC and breaking into Technical Writing From:Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 7 Oct 2002 09:14:13 -0700 (PDT)
I can't believe I'm participating in this thread, but....
STC doesn't specifically advertise itself as a job placement service, so don't expect it to be.
Networking is listed as the second benefit for joining the STC's on its own web site (the first being the pubs). <side bar: that's a garden-path sentence> I think this points to the STC's own acknowledgement that all they can really provide is networking opportunities (mostly with other writers). And you know what, that's not something to be laughed at, especially for newcomers. A little bit of networking can get you a big picture that you may not normally get from sitting in your cube at work. My chapter has a lot of compititions, which can also be enlightening (if you're good at learning by example that is). Besides, at least at my STC chapter, we have pretty good presentations that, at the very least, introduce new concepts and ideas. Yes, there are meetings involving employment, and yes there are always unemployed people there. But that doesn't make it bad or useless in finding a job.
That said, if you really are in need of a job, you shouldn't _rely_ on the STC. You should look in other places, especially those that Andrew Plato mentioned, to find a job. You should go to STC meetings to meet other writers, get a feeling for the job climate and maybe learn something new (adding skills to your skill set to make you more valuable to an employer). STC meetings may also provide a needed distraction from your job hunting woes. That's the real value of the STC. It's just one tool in a set of tools you can use to find work.
That's my two-cents worth. Please direct all flames to me so that we don't clutter up Techwr-l with the tripe that I know will come of these comments. :-)
"Whatever you do, do NOT let your editorial decisions be made by the squiggly spell-checking lines in Word!" ~Keith Cronin, Techwr-l irritant ;-)
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