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Subject:Re. career change from tech writing From:Katav <katav -at- YAHOO -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 27 Apr 1999 09:39:43 -0700
(Came in to this late; apologies if nothing below is
new.)
1. Learn about the target career field.
1.1 Talk to people in the field; you may not like
what you hear and decide against the move.
1.2 Take some courses, especially if you can get
the target employeer to pay for them; this shows
[a] your interest and
[b] the employer's willingness to consider you
for the target career field
2. Figure out ways (if any) to dove-tail TW work with
the target career.
For example, I came to TWing from j'ism and pr; I
also "do" advertising, marketing, proposals (part of
TW), etc. and so on. I -NOW- am working toward
certification as a Disaster Recovery/Business
Continuity planner ... I got into DR/BC because there
was a writing requirement for a DR/BC exercise. THAT
led to _real_ DR/BC 'stuff' (including some Y2K
project management - a lose-lose situation at this
stage of the (Y2K) game) and an employer willing to
pay the piper for the papers (certification is
'packaging' and in the consultancy business, packaging
is as important - alas - as ability).
3. Sell your abilities to management/prospective
employers ... you may need to _remind_ the Powers That
Be several times before they get the message (you want
them to hear/see/act upon). _I'm_ still having to sell
my DR/BC skills -- but then I also am marketing the
BUSINESS to the company -- there is some client
interest, but we are not [yet] aggressively marketing
the DR/BC planning product; that's got'ta change.
Bottom line: Understand the target career; prepare
yourself for the career move; don't become discouraged
if the world fails to embrace the move over night.
===
Katav ( katav -at- yahoo -dot- com )
''Despise not any person and do not deem anything unworthy
of consideration, for there is no person without his hour,
and no thing without its place'' {Ben Azzai [Avot 4:2]}
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