Will Kelly

Lame Technical Writer Interview Questions

It seems that when an organization wants to add a contract or full-time technical writer to their staff they are at a loss as to what questions they should ask the candidates. I've certainly had some lame interview questions asked to me over the years.

At times, it has seemed that because I have a liberal arts degree, some prospective clients and employers weren't sure about my background and experience because I was not a programmer and didn't have a technical degree but it's not like they have to poke me with a stick.

Although, I must admit that the lame questions and attitudes I've experienced while interviewing have been in the minority. But oh boy, the questions do stand out to me until this day.

Will Today's Economy Further Thin Out IT Contracting Firms?

The thought passed my mind today after hearing about more than one low ball technical writing contract off and on over the past few months is if today's economy, corporate indecision, and skewed corporate perceptions that the perfect senior person can be found for cheap is going to further thin out the IT contracting firm herd.

I say this because the bulk of most recruiters salary is paid on a commission basis meaning they have to place people and the fact that some IT contract openings have been open for months as employers get lost in indecision, hand wringing, and a myriad of other issues I can only pretend to understand.

Contractor versus FTE

It never ceases to amaze me the connotation that being a contract IT worker has with some organizations especially in light of today's economy.

Car payments, mortgages, and other bills don't discriminate whether they are paid from money a person earns from contract work or as a full-time employee. Employers need to remember this fact.

Kelly's Laws of Non-Disclosure Agreements

I've recently had cause to rethink of the whole concept of Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) as of late and I am finding the whole concept has been prostituted by tech companies (prompted by their attorneys) because they are way too insecure of their intellectual property (or lack thereof).

Taking Sides

I've had cause to reflect on my professional career as of late and the lessons I've learned working inside so many diverse organizations both large and small.

Sheer dysfunction and stresses like the current economic downturn are driving a wedge into many cross functional teams as managers and departments seek to cast themselves in the best light to senior management often at the expense of their coworkers in other departments.

Recession Proofing your Company's Technical Documentation

So you've outsourced your company's technical documentation to contractors and now you are facing a much tighter budget in 2009?

Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies

I've had some cause lately to look back at some of the projects I've worked on as a contractor, consultant, and freelance technical writer and read  Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies by Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson, and Suzanne Robertson because the synopsis from Amazon made it sound like a good read.

Things I didn't like about Contracting and Consulting

I saw a lot of things as a contractor and consultant that really bothered me even some that left me wanting to take a shower

Kelly's Laws of Meetings

I hate meetings. There I said it. Once I even went to a meeting about meetings when I was on a previous contract

While there are times that I'll admit meetings are necessary, I've seen way to many hours burned by needless meetings. There are also personality types that seem to need meetings so they can feel valuable.

Observations from Putting my Resume Out There (Yet Again)

Prior to getting a new contract extension, I was back out on the job market for a brief time. It was obvious the market is slowing down for agency recruiters because there seemed to be more interested in my references (so they can cold call them)  versus getting me in front of their client for an interview.

Here are some of my observations from my brief junket into today's job market:

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:

The Death of Netscape (Dude, Netscape died years ago...)

I read a lot of articles and blog posts about AOL killing the Netscape browser saying it was the death of Netscape. Actually, Netscape died when AOL acquired Netscape. They ceased to be a viable technology development organization and innovator when the ink dried on the legal agreements

The news about Netscape's demise took me back to my early days using the Internet. When the Netscape Browser ceased to be a viable option I began to use Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator until finally I split my time between Mozilla and Internet Explorer.

A New SEO or Blog Spam?

It seems wheneverr I link one of my blog posts  to a post on blogs.zdnet.com, some SEO or blog spammer named datasystemsplus is impersonating me in search results. The screen capture in this post comes from a Google Alert I have running on my name.

I should probably research this further and email my findings to somebody a ZDnet since it only seems to happen when I link to one of their blog posts.

Why FIOS is not in my Future

As Verizon can't keep a dial tone on the POTS line into my house there is no way they are going to get my business for FIOS! I've been dueling with them to get a technician to my house to finally get a dial tone on my home phone after round after round of incompetence, sloth, lies, and excuses galore from them.

It's almost if they don't want me as a customer anymore. That's OK by me though I want them to fix the issue so I can move my phone over to my cable company (the lesser of two evils when compared to Verizon). Thankfully, I have a cell phone, home office VoIP line, and a Skype account that have been more reliable than the phone company.

The ultimate insult came last night when I waited home all afternoon for a Verizon tech that never showed but who called me nearly three hours after their window closed claiming that I was told that my appointment was moved. I was already out for the night and got a bit angry.

If only they would stop bombarding me with FIOS marketing literature because if I can't trust them to keep legacy telecommunications functioning in my house then I can only imagine what blunders they would make with FIOS that as a freelance writer would really cost me money in lost productivity and frustration.

Tomorrow, I need to summon up the strength and patience to deal with Verizon and their phone tree of doom yet again. Ugh.

No True Product Bites Off Even More

NTP: We sue the (wireless) world by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- NTP is back for more patent goodies. And this time the patent-holding company is suing a lot more than just RIM. NTP is suing AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel. The claims are similar to what were made in NTP’s RIM suit, which was a long, drawn out affair that led to a $612.5 million [...]

No True Product (NTP) is at it again with their litigation as a business model strategy but now they are going after AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Spring Nextel over

CNET Builder.com Off the Air (But not in Australia)

Recently, when I was doing some online research for a client regarding database architecture documentation, I remembered an article I wrote for Builder.com on the subject way back when. When I entered www.builder.com into my browser I was viewing an Australian site.

I had long since archived the article I wrote for them to PDF because the multiple FT editorial staff purges but the shuttering of the American Builder.com site brought back some good and bad memories for me:

• When the tech bubble burst for me I hit the mat like an over the hill prize fighter on his last fight. Builder.com had an open call for writers at the time and I applied with the few clips I had from my professional writing career because I needed the money. I hadn't really written any articles since I was a college English major. I had to learn all over again how to express myself in hundreds of words versus the page count of a requirements document, functional specifications, operations guide, or user guide.
• Surviving multiple editorial changes on the Builder.com side until they got a new editor who offshored editorial content to India.
• Learning how to navigate PR agencies and talking to some really major players in the business both over the phone and in person.
• Some people not understanding how a technical writer could write original content in the form of an article. It only happened once or twice but the ridiculousness of it even today.
• Writing about soft skills like project management and navigating organizational politics for the first time in my career based upon my experiences as an IT contractor and consultant.

Consolidation in the Federal IT Marketplace

Mid-Tier Contractors Getting Left Out (from Washingtonpost.com)

For many years, the middle tier of companies in the $200 billion federal services industry was regarded as a source of innovation and productivity. They grew into companies that today are big names in the contracting space -- SRA, Alion, CACI and Mantech.

Despite a six-year boom in government contracting, the next generation of mid-size players is seeing its share of federal dollars erode. Larger companies increasingly dominate the service industry, which helps the government run its computers, analyze intelligence, conduct scientific research and even mop the floors.

SunRocket's Demise Further Shakes the VoIP Market

While I am sure displaced SunRocket customers began scrambling for new phone provider but news broke across the Web and blogoshphere that SunRocket's creditors announced two preferred providers:
 

SunRocket creditors announce two preferred providers: Vonage takes big hit by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- As has been rumored ever since SunRocket went belly up Monday, their creditors have signed deals with former SR competitors 8×8 and Unified Communications Corp. to be “preferred service providers” for SR’s 200,000 orphaned customers. The deal has to be good for 8×8, and its Packet 8 service. Normal start up costs of slightly more [...]

More Wacky Dell Hijinks with Customers

Dell is flexing their customer service chops again as evidenced by these two postings:

• Dell Purchasing Advice from a Former Employee (from downloadsquad.com) where they detail Dell's aborted legal attempt to pull a posting from their sister blog Consumerist about how to navigate effectively through the morass that is now Dell sales and customer service.
• No Ubuntu for you, Mr. Business type guy (from downloadsquad.com) which documents that while Dell is reaching to Ubuntu to become relevant and with it again -- their support infrastructure is twisting in the wind yet again...

Dell has become a hollow husk of its former self...the Dell that became an industry leader before executive greed  and their comp plans trumped innovation and serving customers.