RE: Portfolios of samples as Interviewing criteria [Remembering]
But your post contains a valuable lesson. It's become clear to me from
following this list that many writers are either oblivious to the importance
of selling themselves, or downright opposed to doing so. It's their loss,
and their inability or unwillingness to effectively market themselves helps
keep guys like you and me working (even with my tiny - er - *portfolio*...).
As a woman, I don't generally compare my portfolio to yours, but...
I totally agree with the two of you. I am a great technical writer, in my not-so-humble-opinion. But, I don't think I am any better than the thousands of other technical writers out there.
At one time, I had a very difficult time getting a job. Then, I learned a whole lot of things, mostly from the people in this group. This summer, I was without a job for 10 weeks. It seemed like forever to me, but I realize that many others out there have been unemployed for much longer periods of time.
Why was I able to get a job so relatively quickly, even living and working in the midst of Silicon Valley of the North (East side of Seattle, in the shadow of Microsoft)? It boils down to a few simple points:
1. Have a great resume. Get friends, relatives, enemies, and/or recruiters to give you tips on what a great resume should include. Listen to them, and take the best of all advice. If the advice makes sense to you, it is probably good.
2. Work the Internet to to fullest. Post your resume somewhere that it can be found in a Google search as well as on monster, hotjobs, dice, or whatever works well in your area. Make sure that people are seeing it. Tweak your monster resume every day so that it is noticed.
3. Have a great portfolio. Most of my portfolio is now on a CD with a snazzy self-printed label. A hiring person will keep it on their desk, and can open up things that a portfolio doesn't show, such as a sample RoboHelp file or HTML pages. I got my current job on the basis of my personal website, which is a mirror of my portfolio CD.
4. Be well-prepared for interviews. Know what they are going to ask, and what your answers will be. If you aren't sure what they are going to ask, try to find out as much as you can about the company and predict what might be asked. If it is a large company, they are likely to ask questions about working with a team of writers. If it is a small or new company, you will likely be setting up a documentation life cycle schedule and making the documentation policies for the company.
4. When my son was in second grade, his teacher posted a sign above the classroom door: "IALAC". Every time they went through the door, they had to repeat the words "I Am Loveable And Capable." If you need to, post these letters on your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of the car, your refrigerator door... :)
Diane Evans
Technical Writer
Washington State Coordinator, Tombstone Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/washing.html
Oregon State Coordinator, Tombstone Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/oregon.html
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