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Subject:Re: Temporary/Contract work From:Kate Stout <stout -dot- k -at- comcast -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 09 Dec 2004 08:47:08 -0500
Here's another way to think about how to present yourself. I've recently
gone down the employee to contractor route myself, and here's some of
things I've found helpful along the way.
Present skills and buzzword high up in your resume.
For example, it's probably obvious to you that as an experienced tech
writer you can interview technical people, create complex documents,
edit, design document templates, etc. etc. etc. If I had to guess, I bet
you don't call those out in your resume. If you're like I was, you
probably still have the chronological format that focuses on the company
and jobs you had, rather than a list of skills right up front.
Here's the thing - as a contractor, people are hiring a solution. They
want reassurance that you can come in and get going. You're the expert,
the gun-for-hire. So your resume should reflect that.
Once I switched my resume around so that I have my skills up front,
followed by technology/TLA, then finally some chronology, I started
getting a lot more responses.
Scary statistic - First review of resumes is usually not by the team
you'll be joining, and each resume is looked at for less than 20
seconds. So get everything that you are trying to market in the upper
half of the first page.
Welcome to marketing!
The other two factors are, as people have said, expand your search
outside of the Valley and network with others.
I'm in Massachusetts, which is about as bad as the Valley, but I just
finished 3 months of work for Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park. Visited
the site once to meet people, and did the rest by phone and Internet.
If all of the people you knew have moved on, where have they moved on
to? Do they know anyone who needs a writer? There's various networking
services out there for you to find people from your past. I'm currently
using LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), and find it helpful.
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