Getting Experience -- was Volunteer TW Services

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

>Writing, especially grants or anything that's part of a public image,
>is high-risk. That's why I'd encourage anyone who wants to write on a
>volunteer basis to pick an organization you believe in. Be willing to
>work where you're needed to prove yourself. Even that's not a
>guarantee that you'll get to do writing eventually. However, you'll
...

Jill makes an interesting point here--and I've no doubt
that it's valid--but this perspective, if widely held,
leaves new tech writers pretty much out in the cold.
A regular theme on this list is the
"how do I get a job without experience and how do
I get experience without a job" question, and one of
the two most common answers is to *volunteer your
skills to a charity/non-profit/church* to gain experience.
(The other common answer is to do documentation for
an existing product, just so you'll have something to show,
but that's not nearly as valuable or useful for anyone
involved.)

From our perspective (keeping in mind that we're
fortunately now not in a position in which we need to
volunteer to get experience), this winds up being
an interesting Catch-22. One of the experiences
that Deb alluded to came about when we were both
in school and working full time AND mulling over
self-employment. Getting some different experience
and different portfolio material, while simultaneously
working for a cause we believed in, would have been
a great thing, and a worthwhile way to spend some of
our none-too-plentiful free hours. However, cold-calling
for donations to prove ourselves so we'd be allowed
to do something (write) we could do better, more quickly, and
more easily, didn't make any sense to us--and I've no doubt
that it makes equally little sense for a wanna-be
tech writer who needs experience to get a job.

Now, perhaps this is just too
self-serving for effective volunteer work, but with
limited time and energy, it seems that few people
would really take the time or effort to jump through
these hoops, just to volunteer their tech writing
skills and build their experience.

So, with this context, let's pose the question again:
If you're a newbie tech writer with no portfolio
or tangible experience, *how do you get experience*?

Eric


*********************************************************
* Eric J. Ray, ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com, http://www.raycomm.com/
* TECHWR-L Listowner, co-author _Mastering HTML 4.0_
*   _HTML 4 for Dummies Quick Reference_, and others.
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