fwd: Re: breaking into tech writing

Subject: fwd: Re: breaking into tech writing
From: K Watkins <kwatkins -at- QUICKPEN -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 11:52:05 EDT

======== Original Message ========
In message <9509221439 -dot- AA26866 -at- solomon -dot- buckhead -dot- com> - Barclay Blanchard
<blanchab -at- solomon -dot- buckhead -dot- com> writes:
:>Here's a personal story in case it helps you in some way...
(stuff deleted)
:>... Now I work at a small company where I'm the only
:>writer, and I don't often ask for permission to undertake projects I'm
:>interested in (like creating a web page): I just do them.

This is great inspiration, let me tell you!! :)

It also reminded me of what one of my favorite tech writing teachers told us

about his start in the business. Back before he was teaching college he had

been working in a small company (I can't remember the details of the story)
and his job was kind of iffy (in the sense he was there, doing the
job well, but his position wasn't taken seriously), so he took it upon
himself to make himself indispensable. He started volunteering for this and

that so that he literally had his finger in every pie. When the company
started downsizing, his position *should* have been the first one to go, but

it wasn't eliminated because he was needed in so many other capacities. He
WAS running himself ragged doing the work of >>1 people but he thought it
was
worth it (since the alternative at the time was unemployment). For all I
know this was a bit of fiction with a moral tucked in there to impress the
young, untested, untried undergraduates but it does seem to make a lot of
sense.

p.s.

I know a lot of people are very concerned about my .sig file :) Let me
clear
this once and for all: Poicephalus is a genus of African parrots, medium in
size, megalomaniac in demeanor. I have one, she forced me to include that
in my sig.

==============================================================
Cathy Quinones Poicephalus rule!!
quinones -at- mindspring -dot- com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
http://www.mindspring.com/~mintz/coverpg.html = Bird Care Info
======== Fwd by: K Watkins ========
On 22Sep95, Cathy Quinones (quinones -at- mindspring -dot- com) wrote:

|one of my favorite tech writing teachers...took it upon himself to make
|himself indispensable. He started volunteering for this and that so that
|he literally had his finger in every pie. When the company started
|downsizing, his position *should* have been the first one to go, but it
|wasn't eliminated because he was needed in so many other capacities....For
|all I know this was a bit of fiction with a moral tucked in there to
|impress the young, untested, untried undergraduates....

Whether his particular tale was fiction or not, I can tell you from personal
experience that this can work very well. I've used it twice. It's an
especially advisable approach when you look down the pike and see hints that
your work is thinning out--the product you document isn't doing well on the
market and may retire; the massive doc set you're working on is nearly done;
the next upgrade doesn't have many changes; people have stopped talking
about that project you were going to start on next; etc. These things don't
necessarily mean you're being groomed for sudden departure, but they do make
you an easy target if times get lean.

K Watkins
kwatkins -at- quickpen -dot- com
speaking for myself, not my employers


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