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I contracted for three years through various agencies, and I talked with
those kinds of recruiters. In my experience, more often than not, the
recruiter wasn't very knowledgeable about technical writers/editors and
didn't really know what was important to look for in a writer/editor.
Usually, their only concerns were with two things: my specific word
processing/DTP experience and my hourly rate.
The rate was never debatable with the recruiter. The employer told the
agency how much they would pay, and that was that. as far as the
recruiter was concerned.
The recruiter would call and immediately ask if you had a certain amount
of experience with such-and-such software, usually FrameMaker. If your
answer was no, the conversation went no further because the ignorant
recruiter thought the main job of a tech writer/editor was typing
(which, in fact, is sometimes true, so maybe the recruiter isn't really
so ignorant). If I had the typing experience they wanted, the next
question was always about my rate. To an agency/recruiter *that* is most
important. They never seemed concerned that I could do a good job for
the employer; their only concern seemed to be with getting a body so
they would get paid.
