Will Kelly

Real Technical Recruiter? Identity Thief? Or just plain Troll?

Many IT  workers whether full time or contract have a disdain for recruiters.  It's justly deserved event though there are still some professionals in the field.

Recently, I've finished off some smaller contracts and I have a big contract coming to an end so I am back out in marketing mode and this time has been very disconcerting to me even having been a contractor for about ten years.

Employment experts and job sites drill into job seekers that they need to have excellent oral and written communications skills. It seems that rule no longer applies with recruiters now because I've calls from recruiters I could barely understand over the phone. How is a recruiter who can barely speak fluent English going to sell my technical communications skills to a client? As a writer and communicator, how should I regard a potential opportunity that outsources their recruiting to a third party who cannot communicate effectively to me over the phone or via email? How can they value my skills?

On this latest round, I've run into an interesting pattern with agencies that have recruiter front people who don't speak English as their first language. They are asking for a lot of personal information up front without even offering their last name including:

• The last four digits of your SS# or heck sometimes ask for your entire SS#
• Your birth date including month and year

After the jump, I have the text of an email from one such recruiter.

They also ask for references up front without even the hint of an interview or a job offer. While this is common with some of the second tier contract agencies it is even more rampant now and I've instituted a policy where I don't give references without a job offer.

No Wonder the Dulles Wegmans Removed all the AOL themed Specials

The Dulles, VA Wegmans used to have a lot of AOL themed food specials. Afterall, AOL's former HQ is right across the road. After the last major round of layoffs, all the food specials disappeared from the store.

I thought it was the round of layoffs that had the specials pulled from in store advertisements. However, after receiving an email from a recruiter (text after the jump with recruiter and company name redacted) much less the gas to get out to the hinterlands of Loudoun county.  I think Wegmans pulled the specials because nobody left at AOL can afford to eat there!

For everything they are asking in the job description, the pay is pitiful. Even marking up the hourly rate 40-50% for agency margin shows that AOL is no longer serious as a content play and is biding their time with warm bodies that can be tossed overboard without a severance package when their Time Warner masters finally figure out a way to spin them off and close that chapter in their corporate history.

The full text of the recruiter's email appears after the jump:

Web Office Security

Office documents equal corporate secrets and while the recent developments in the Web Office space from Google, Adobe, Microsoft, ThinkFree, and Zoho are painting an attractive picture of tomorrow's Office suite but new questions about of corporate information security arise as the Office suite morphs into an online/offline hybrid.

Zoho recently made headlines with accepting Google and Yahoo logins meaning that users don't have to have  a separate Zoho login. However, while I've been avidly following Web Office suite developments the Zoho announcement about accepting Google and Yahoo logins was positively consumer. I've yet to read about a major enterprise win for Zoho or any other Web Office vendor for that matter and/or security developments like two-factor security with RSA SecurIDs.

Senior Technical Writer/Analyst with Project Management Skills Seeking New Projects

If you are seeking a seasoned senior technical writer/analyst with project management skills in the Washington, DC/Northern Virginia area then I might be your guy! I am coming to the end of some contract projects  and I am now seeking new project work starting in Summer 2008. I am also open to telecommuting arrangements.

My resume is available in MS Word and PDF format after the jump:

Checking out Google Presentations

I've been taking advantage of some downtime to go and revisit some Web Office and other applications including Google Presentations.

PowerPoint slide decks are the bane of many meetings and organizations. However, within limits, a slide deck can serve its purpose. Google Presentations is a presentations package with a much lighter footprint than the ubiquitous Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Thus introducing Google Presentations into an organizations means a mandated path to simpler presentations.

Checking out Zoho Projects

Project management applications can be expensive with many features that go underutilized so third-party hosting of project management applications is an ideal option for organizations seeking an entry-level project management application that can grow with their needs and requirements.

Zoho Projects from the good folks at Zoho is one such hosted project management applications.  The Zoho Projects pricing model more palatable  than buying Microsoft Project licenses.

Many analysts and pundits see it as competing against BaseCamp from 37Signals. However, I see applications like Zoho Projects as taking project management to the people outside the PMO.

The Tao of Audience

I've had some cause to think about the importance of knowing one's audience as of late due to a sequence of unrelated but very telling events.

Audience is important. Whether you are a writer, editor, salesperson, or anybody who faces external customers on an ongoing basis. Dismiss the value of knowing your audience then only trouble can happen. It's always important to  ask Who am I explaining things for? Is it for me because I don't have as much of a full grasp on the subject as I am letting on? Or, is it for the end customer to help them perform their job better?

It's important to remove yourself from this equation because if you have limited knowledge. Just because you don't understand something it doesn't necessarily mean the audience isn't going to understand it.

Checking out EverNote Beta

I came across EverNote last year when I had surgery on my right arm which is my writing hand and grew to really like it for capturing notes while I was in meetings and to capture ideas and other random synaptical misfirings on the fly. I especially liked being able to tag notes for later reference.

The latest version of EverNote is still in beta and a major upgrade to this useful note taking application expanding to Windows, Macintosh, Windows Mobile, and the Web. This means I can have EverNote clients on my MacBook Pro, client notebook PC, and my other home office PCs and can sync my notes via EverNote's Web component.

Working with Technical Editors

Working with technical editors can be a challenge for many writers and I've had cause to think about some positive and negative experiences during my career as a technical writer and writing for technology publications and websites to pull together the following thoughts:

Checking out Zoho Writer

I've had the pleasure of talking to Zoho when I was writing an article for Processor Magazine about Web Office suites. While I got the news about some upgrades to Zoho Writer, it was only this weekend did I have some downtime to go and check out the the upgrades and improvements.

Zoho's suite of Web Office applications are certainly blurring the lines between the staid old Desktop office suite and Web applications. They've also have some strong product evangelism which is going to be a necessity for them to break down the FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) swirling around the whole Microsoft Office/Desktop Office productivity versus putting your documents and office productivity applications into the cloud.