Re: Advice for interviewing new tech writers - Samples and legal issues

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

While everyone seems to be looking for samples, I can tell you I would not 
have been hired for a large number of jobs based on that. I didn't have any.

Why?

They were proprietary works for hire. I had no ownership and could not 
legally give these to anyone. Many projects never went commercial and thus 
never public, so you are now talking about company confidential material 
that can get your butt in the sling if you are passing it out freely, 
especially if it goes to a competitor. You would also be surprised at how 
many companies interview people from competitors, looking for those 
confidential samples, and now you just fell into their trap and aided them.

Just because you have a copyright date and a finished customer manual, 
unless it actually went out publicly, you could be in trouble.

Some work was government work,  and in the case of government work, much was 
secret, and you Do Not Pass Go, you Do Not Collect $200, because you know 
where you are going if you begin passing secret documentation out as 
samples.

It wasn't until about 10 years ago, I worked for a company that put a lot of 
material online and I could point to it. I also found some material that had 
gone commercial and was online so I could point to it.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lynne Wright" <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- tiburoninc -dot- com>
To: "Dan Goldstein" <DGoldstein -at- nuot -dot- com>; <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2015 9:33 AM
Subject: RE: Advice for interviewing new tech writers