Re: One easy lesson (WAS: Tech writing interviews)

[JIMCHEVAL -at- AOL -dot- COM]

In a message dated 98-10-17 10:12:34 EDT, diane_williams -at- YAHOO -dot- COM writes:

<< If an interviewer were to
 press you for details you can ask, "Aren't you in the business of
 selling your services to a customer? Yes? Well then, so am I!"
   >>

I'm bemused by this idea of a technical writing consultant being a one-trick
pony (at least in regard to a particular client.)

In retrospect, I too can recall situations where someone might have gotten one
key piece of information out of me on an interview, and then not hired me.
But frankly, if all they needed in that situation was one strategic insight
and none of the day to day productivity that's been a part of my actual
projects - and which has usually resulted in them being extended, often well
beyond the planned duraction - then how much was there to do there in the
first place?

Not to mention the fact that if the person is really that under-handed, I
don't particularly want to spend weeks or months discovering what OTHER sneaky
little games they have to play.  Brrrrrr.......

Being an actor, I have a number of original monologues on my Web site
(http://www.gis.net/~jiimcheval).  Hundreds of people have looked at them.
Someone asked me once if I wasn't afraid someone would steal one of them.  To
which I responded that I'm sure more than one person has already claimed my
work as their own.  Then I added: "They can steal the water, but they can't
steal the well."

I get hired for my depths, not my samples.  Let those who scurry off with the
latter feed quietly on their tidbits in the dark.

Jim Chevallier
North Hollywood


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