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.
I do as well. Companies that are offshoring software development are
likewise offshoring the documentation work for those software products. A
prior company went from 8 US-based FT writers in 1999 to 1-2 US-based
contract writers (no benefits) in 2004. The contractors work anywhere from
20-35 hours / week at around $25/hour. In large part, they were responsible
for editing documentation that was written elsewhere.
And to whomever said:
>When Posada stated that you shouldn't be talking about the economy in
>an interview, well sometimes you can't get around it. Since my husband
>is interviewing ONLY because his job is being offshore outsourced when
>he is asked why he's leaving,
I actually was the one who said this. The fact remains that one can mention
their job function was outsourced w/out discussing the economy. When my job
function (read not me personally), was outsourced, I obtained a letter from
my former employer stating "theirs was a business decision wh/ had nothing
to do with my performance". If asked, I can produced this letter, along with
5 years of consecutive and good-excellent performance reviews.
So, if you are asked why you are available for work, say something like
"despite excellent performance, my company made a business decision to move
my job function (or department) to an offshore location". Don't discuss
economics with a hiring manager. That is more of a political discussion,
and there is a 50% chance the HM will disagree with your view of the
economy.
-----Original Message-----
Subject: RE: FUNNY OFFSHORE STORY
>numbers attached, etc. I am just passing on the
>story. I don't have any first hand knowledge of
>writing being off-shored.
I do. Where I was before here (requirements doc writing), and where I am
now (web and online help). In both of these situations, the work left,
the project failed to deliver the bottom-line savings), the work came
back.
Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!
---
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.
