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.
well, obviously, managers who make disparaging comments about the need for
your services are being jerks, since if they really didn't need you, why are
they hiring you? Why they feel the need to make it sound like they can edit
as well as or better than you... who knows. Must be a control/loss of power
thing. They feel threatened by making you the final "authority" on
content... and maybe they fear that if you do a super job, they will look
inferior by comparison, or for not having somebody as capable as you on
staff.
Of course we all also know that having many alleged years of experience
doing something doesn't mean someone is particularly good at it. We just had
to let go a writer who claimed to have 20 years of experience, who couldn't
write a 4-word title that had no typos in it, and that made grammatical
sense.
I suppose the best way to respond to those types of statements is to say
something that will stroke their fragile egos (ie. "Well, i'm sure you could
do this, but i'm here to save you time... i'm sure you and your team have
many more important things to do" ), then trot out the example you cite
below to prove it. That way, you are scoring points by "acknowledging" that
they are the supreme being, and they will be sure to like that... and sweet
little brown-nosing you.
like Bruce just more or less said, if you are confident in your abilities,
don't let other people's doubts during interviews phase you.
Lynne Wright
Technical Communications
Positron Inc.
5101 Buchan St. H4P 2R9
(514) 345-2200
fax: 345-2272
ROBOHELP X5 - ALL NEW VERSION. Now with Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!
Now is the best time to buy - special end of month promos, including:
$100 mail-in rebate; Free online orientation on content management
functionality; Huge savings on support and future product releases;
PLUS Great discounts on RoboHelp training. OFFER EXPIRES March 31!
Call 1-800-358-9370 or visit: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -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.
