Re[2]: Framemaker required

[Donna_Menk -at- PC -dot- RADIAN -dot- COM]

John Gough wrote:
>Amen. I've been approached by a ridiculous number of people
>who are burned out at liberal arts grad school or human
>services or even programming. They ask how to get into tech
>writing as if all it takes is the secret handshake.

Yes, this happens frequently.

Reminds me of a couple of war stories from the days when I worked
at a company that has long since gone out of business. They had a
chew'em-up, spit'em-out mentality when it came to their writing
staff, and they used contract writers frequently. We got some, uh,
interesting resumes at times.

I think my favorite was the fire fighter who applied for a writing
position (his only background was fighting fires). As I wiped the
tears of laughter from my eyes, I began to see how having this guy
working with us might come in *really* handy... ;-)

And my second-favorite was the programmer who, when asked why she
wanted to switch to technical writing, responded "I want a job with
less pressure." There wasn't a dry eye in the office that day!

Ah, well. Sometimes I look around and think that things are better
now, in terms of respect for our profession. And other times, I wonder
if anything's changed at all.

Regards,
Donna Menk
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Donna Menk                                Radian International LLC
donna_menk -at- pc -dot- radian -dot- com                  Austin, TX
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