Re: Lying applicants

[Sue Pyle <comline -at- GREENNET -dot- NET>]

What the hell is wrong with consulting firms these days? They never seem to
get the story right about the client's specific needs and environment. And
then they accuse us writers of lying! Your entire post sounded patronizing,
chauvinistic, and totally unprofessional. We're not animals that you can
just yank on and off jobs, accuse of "chatting".

Where you might think a professional writer is lying, you may discover she
or he is responding to your question (whatever it was) and answered to the
best of her/his ability. What's the point in lying anyway? The client and
you, the consulting firm, will find out about what is or isn't true soon
enough. My guess is she didn't totally understand the job before she even
arrived there.

This happens a lot lately. Consulting firms get the specs wrong. They're so
anxious to sell a job and get the commission, that they pull in people who
don't even know what to expect, and they get clients to agree to things they
probably shouldn't. Then here we are looking for work, and these consulting
firms paint a story from heaven. We get on the job, and find out there's a
world more this job recruiter didn't tell us. Usually, it's not because they
are withholding information; typically, it's because they don't understand
the work either.

I submit that these consulting firms bring a contractor along for the sales
pitch meeting. Together, the recruiter (sales rep) and the writer can find
out in needs analysis fashion, just what the client needs. Then at the
outset, the writer should advise the recruiter if the scope of the project
is above and beyond the skill set.

Suzanne
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato <aplato -at- EASYSTREET -dot- COM>
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Date: Monday, September 21, 1998 4:34 AM
Subject: Lying applicants


>What the hell is wrong with technical writers these days?  I want to share
>this little story with you because it is driving me nuts.
>
>In the past three months I have had five applicants lie through their teeth
>to me about their skills.  They sat there in my office and blatant lied to
>me about their skills.  For example, I hired a person (not from this list)
>who claimed extensive knowledge of Windows NT and relational databases.  At
>my company, a tech writer with good SQL skills is like a hunk of gold.  My
>clients are so desperate for writers with database experience that
>naturally, when anyone comes in the door with claims such knowledge, I am
>inclined to overlook some deficiencies to get them on site right away.
>
>Nevertheless, when this person got on-site, she quickly demonstrated her
>incompetence with Windows and databases.  She could not handle basic stuff
>like using a web browser, unzipping archive files, and changing network
>settings.  She did not know what "relational integrity" or a "primary key"
>was.  Worse yet, she spent most of her first few days chatting with a
fellow
>consultant about absolutely nothing.  At one point I came on site and found
>her babbling away irritating another consultant.  I asked her to return to
>her desk and that she needed to get up to speed on the application we were
>documenting.  A hour later, she still had not run through the installation
>and was back chatting and gossiping.
>
>The client pulled me aside at the end of the week and said they had serious
>concerns about this writer.  That was it for me.  When the client says they
>are worried, it's serious.  So I yanked her off the job immediately .
>Thankfully, this person elected to subcontract so I was able to term her
>contract.
>
>Naturally, this person was angry with me.  I told her that the client saw
>her incompetence and became very, very worried (which they did).  At the
>rates I charge the client was not willing to pay for an incompetent writer.
>They had already cycled through six worthless writers before we showed up.
>In fact, they hired us because we have a reputation for fast, solid
>documentation work.
>
>This person was adamant that she had all these "extensive" skills.  Yet, in
>a week on site she managed to A) do nothing B) demonstrate her complete
lack
>of knowledge of Windows, SQL, databases, etc.  C) embarrass other
>consultants with her unprofessional gossiping and chatter.
>
>All this lead me to an interesting discovery.  People believe their lies.
>This person I hired honestly believed she was a Windows NT and SQL expert.
>She was just appalled that people could not see that.  How do your respond
>to that?
>
>"Well, not only are you incompetent, but you have an extremely overinflated
>opinion of yourself."
>
>Sheesh, our own damn President thinks it is okay to lie.
>
>Well, I don't want to get into the current political scandals, but I am
>bothered about this.  I am seeing more and more writers who are just
>blatantly lying to me about their skills.  I remember I asked a long time
>ago what others here did when they had a non-technical tech writer.  Well,
>now I have a new question.  What do you do with liars?
>
>So, I am curious to hear your thoughts.  Liars and cheats? How do we ferret
>them out?  And when you do catch them, what do you do with them?  Fire 'em,
>whack them with a 2x4, let the ice weasels nibble their eyeballs out?
>
>Respond off list.  I'll post a blatantly one-sided summary in a few years.
>:-)
>
>------------------------------------------------
>Andrew Plato
>President / Principal Liar
>Anitian Consulting, Inc.
>
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>
>


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=