I'm looking for a way to earn a little extra money at home with a part-time job. I have looked into data entry jobs that are offered through sites like indeed.com (my personal favorite) and others, but they seem to be scams. Every time I inquire about the job, I am asked to pay a fee to even learn about the offer, and it makes me doubt the legitimacy of the company.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to be asking, but I'm starting to lose hope that I'll ever find a legitimate way to earn a few extra bucks at home on weekends or after work. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

by Warren Singer

In Part One of this article, we defined stress as occurring when we perceive outside demands as being greater than our resources to cope. We noted that an informal poll conducted on the TECHWR-L site and ratings in the Jobs Rated Almanac indicated that technical writers in general experience a moderate to medium level of stress in their work environment.

In Part One we also looked at the stressors that technical writers report encountering in their work environment. Based on an informal survey conducted in August 2001, I identified some of the major stressors cited by technical writers:

• Work overload and time pressures
• Last-minute changes
• Difficulty with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
• Problems with managers
• Ongoing learning challenges and limited access to a product
• Poorly defined and managed projects
• Computer and tool problems
• Workspace environment
• Job security
• Lack of control over the work environment

Part Two offers some practical suggestions for increasing your ability to cope with each of these categories of stressors. Rather than attempting to cover solutions in depth, this article provides a range of ideas to explore in addressing the stressors discussed in Part One. The "See Also" section at the end of each topic provides links to additional resources related to the topic, which help clarify or expand on the strategies briefly described under each topic.

Thanks to TECHWR-Ler Debbie Stewart for initiating this list and to others for adding to it.

Computer and Technical Skills

General

• Graphics software packages
  
• Word processing software
  
• Online authoring software
  
• Online editors
  
• Desktop publishing
  
• Project planning software
  

Specific

• Microsoft Word
  
• Help Workshop
  
• FrameMaker
  
• PageMaker
  
• Ventura
  
• Adobe Acrobat
  
• UNIX
  
• Macintosh
  
• RoboHELP
  
• C++ code
  
• COBOL code
  
• Java
  
• Visual Basic
  
• Configuring Windows95

Where can I get Content Creation Editor (CCE) certification? I see this as a requirement from time to time, but Googling on this term yields nothing but job postings requiring CCE, or a course offering in computer forensics (also known as CCE).

If any one can help me out by giving me a sample guide on functional specification of social networking websites like MySpace, orkut, facebook etc.

Looking forward for the positive response from the community at large.

Thanks in Anticipation
Paresh Patel.

by Warren Singer

If you are new to the technical writing profession or are considering technical writing as a career, you may be wondering whether technical writing is a high-stress occupation. According to The Jobs Rated Almanac 2001 by Les Krantz, technical writers are rated as having a "relatively moderate to medium level of stress" when compared to other professions. The Almanac ranks 250 professions based on a range of job demands that are considered to cause stress; the stress ranking for "technical writing" is based on the large workloads, tight deadlines, stringent demands for quality, and the exposure to criticism characteristic of many technical and marketing writer jobs.

This is a problem I have been struggling with for quite some time....how does one reduce the (negative) impact of pixelation loss when reducing the size of screen captures via Snag It?

I have no problem with this issue when rescaling smaller source images such as pop-ups, but when doing the same with much larger examples with lots of line-by-line detail, reducing these images to fit a Framemaker document is always a disaster (e.g. text in original screencaps becomes blurry or unreadable).

Admin note: At one time, Eric Ray was asked to offer his thoughts on what to look for in hiring a technical writer. Following are some of his comments, which were provided in the context of hiring a technical writer for a fairly large and very techie technical publications department.

You need to keep four main characteristics in mind when hiring technical writers:

• Communication and Interpersonal Skills
  
• Writing Experience and Skills
  
• Tool-related Experience and Skills
  
• Technical Experience and Skills (with the material to be documented)
  

The following sections outline what to look for (and avoid) in each area.

I have a strong background in software testing, but my background in software testing is, shall we say, scattered and I fear much of it may be viewed as obsolete. I have been trying to find a way to combine the two, without a lot of success. I am curious if others have experienced this, and if so, how they overcame it. Thank you.

Note: I will also post this to TECHWR-L, per the above, but I wanted to make a general entry just as a test to see what comes of it. I request your indulgence.