Re: What sort of experience would be better?

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>]

On Sep 12, 2010, at 4:06 PM, Jimmy Breck-McKye wrote:

> I'm a recent graduate looking to enter technical writing, and I need to 
> make a choice. Quickly.

<snip>

> The question is, when taking a trainee / graduate, which experience 
> would hold the greater sway with you? Or, more to the point, would the 
> advantages of the dedicated internship make up for the amount it will 
> cost me? Would you take much heed of a candidate who offered generic 
> technical support experience (considering this will include second / 
> third tier support)?
<snip>

By all means, take the money (and follow the sound suggestion
of asking the charity to match the other offer!). 

Besides the obvious "bird in the hand" advantage of the paying 
gig, you also need to consider that few jobs actually end up
being exactly as portrayed. Based on the description you provide,
it might be that the charity would provide better experience for
you...but then it might not either. There could be some really
cool opportunities to build your experience and make a difference
in the generic tech support role. (Consider in particular that
any effective technical communication artifacts that you produce
for the tech support job will go directly to the company's 
bottom line, and that will assuredly be visible.)

I say this, of course, with a bit of bias--one of my very early
jobs in this field (immediately after I learned the joy of
pink slips) was as a technical writer 4 of 5 days each week, and
working at the university help desk on the 5th. The experience
in tech support was utterly invaluable to my career. 

Eric

--
Eric J. Ray, ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. 
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try 
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

LavaCon 2010 in San Diego Sept 29 - Oct 2 is now open for registration.  
   Use referral code TECHWR-L for $50 off conference tuition! 
          See program at: http://lavacon.org/


---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat