Portfolios

["Hanrahan, Dennis F" <Dennis -dot- Hanrahan -at- UNISYS -dot- COM>]

I'm new to the list and this is my first attempt to post something, so
please "be gentle" if this has been covered before!

This thread about having a portfolio available for job interviews leads
me to wondering, "What if you're a technical editor and haven't actually
written anything job-related yourself?"

Some people have suggested showing "before" and "after" samples of
various documents you've worked on, perhaps including some pages "marked
up like a Christmas tree" with red ink. But what if the documents are
classified or proprietary and can't be shown? (I ran into this a lot in
the aerospace field.) Or what if the writers you're editing for are
quite good and their writing seldom needs a very heavy edit?

So, I've never found the "portfolio" concept very helpful in getting
editing jobs. As likely as not, the employer expects you to take one of
the onerous "editing tests," but they do that whether you present a
portfolio or not.

I'd be interested to hear from other technical editors who feel
differently about the value of portfolios. And if any of my colleagues
are reading this, I'm definitely *not* seeking a change of employment at
this time!

Dennis Hanrahan
dennis -dot- hanrahan -at- unisys -dot- com

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