From Independent Consultant to Employer  

Making the leap from independent consultant to employer is a complex process. When you become an employer you are no longer dealing with the same tasks that are familiar to you. When we decided to combine our efforts to start a training and documentation consulting company, we overcame difficulties, but made mistakes along the way. If you have been pondering the idea of starting a business, we hope that our experience can better prepare you for becoming a successful employer.

Dianetti, Angela and Jill McCauslin. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Management>Consulting

From Manager to Individual Contributor — Would You Rather be a Worker Bee?  

Becoming an individual contributor again after being a manager can be one of the most important decisions of your career. I made the decision over two years ago, and it was right for me. Is it right for you?

Boutin, Carmie. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Management

From Sentence to Bullet: How to Style a One-Page Résumé for Traction  

The one-page MBA résumé has become, in graduate management education, the self-representational document of choice. Sentences are out, bullets are in, details remain. The key is how to detail the bullet to describe, define, and deliver, in non-narrative form, professional achievements and accomplishments. In this paper, I examine samples of raw quasi-narrative descriptions and suggest restyled improvements for single-line bullets that more clearly, precisely, and effectively represent how authors describe their achievements. The raw data come from a data set of some 400 résumés submitted as a task in a studio-based broadcast course on business communication. The authors are mid-level managers in Latin America enrolled in a global MBA program. The paper examines the content and form of the objective, summary, and professional experience sections of the résumé and provides a set of tips for written language use in the résumé.

Staczek, John J. Association for Business Communication (2005). Careers>Resumes>Management>Business Communication

Getting This "Global Thing" Right…

CEOs overwhelmingly believe that revenue growth is their number one priority: four out of five CEOs (83%) now believe that revenue growth is the most important path to boosting financial performance over the next three years. And what do they see as the two key drivers for this growth? New and differentiated products and services (nearly two-thirds) and new markets (55%). Responsiveness is the new key competence, i.e., CEOs acknowledge that they need the ability to recognize, analyze and respond more effectively to continuously changing market conditions and risks. Reinstituting customer responsive organizations is high on their growth agenda.

Ray, Rebecca. LISA (2004). Careers>Management>International

Great Mistakes in Technical Leadership

What follows is the abridged version of the list of mistakes I have assembled in this manner over the last thirteen years of watching Technical Leads get it wrong. It is my contention that if you can just avoid making these mistakes, you are well on your way to doing a good job as a Technical Lead.

Hacknot (2006). Careers>Project Management>Technology

Guidelines for Mentoring Programs  

A successful mentoring relationship benefits those involved through increased confidence and a sense of direction. The relationship provides a risk-free learning environment in which to offer career guidance. Mentoring relationships can develop between individuals within an organization, between individuals in two different organizations, or between students and STC professionals.

STC. Careers>Mentoring>Management

Handling Tough Situations: The Short Method

We discussed how to buy time when you are assaulted by an unpleasant surprise. Our argument was that few people respond well to challenging situations unless they have some time to prepare. Therefore, whenever you can, you should divide the task into four distinct phases: (1) minimal immediate response, (2) preparation, (3) problem-solving discussion, and (4) follow-through. Unfortunately, some situations don't let you postpone a full discussion. For such cases, you need the 'short method,' which condenses phases 1-3.

Reimold, Cheryl. IEEE PCS (2000). Careers>Collaboration>Project Management

Happiness is A Good Fit: Personality Typing Tools for Career Management  

Members of our profession have tended to manage their careers by choosing either technical or management paths, then following them. Increasingly, technical communicators are factoring their personality types into the equation. This paper examines how standardized personality typing tools used by career planners are applied to help team members to find a good job fit, build a highfunctioning team, salvage interpersonal conflicts in the workplace, and make a suitable career change.

Bailie, Rahel Anne, Liz Babcock, Conni E. Evans and Emma C. Hamer. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>Management>TC

Hello, My Name is Doug and I'm a Workaholic

It's important to be able to distinguish between workaholics and people who are simply wrapped up in their work--either because they enjoy it so much or because, temporarily, they have decided to make it a priority to win a promotion or attain the kind of lifestyle that they want. For a workaholic, work is the end, not the means. While it may bring wealth or power, what matters most is simply working. Just as alcoholics drink because they must--not always because they enjoy it--so a workaholic is addicted to working even when there is no rational reason for doing so.

Davis, Doug. STC (2007). Careers>Workplace>Project Management

Helping Your Employees Manage Their Stress  

This progression provides an opportunity to discuss the stress-related challenges technical communicators face in today’s changing environment. The focus is on on coping and thriving.

Gillihan, Dana L. and Joy Lashley. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>Workplace

Hiring a Technical Writer  

Hiring a technical writer can be tricky, even if you happen to be one. Where can you find a technical writer? What characteristics should you look for? How can you tell a good writer from a bad one?

Docsymmetry. Careers>Management>Interviewing

Hiring for Success  

Hiring writers and editors on “gut reaction” can be risky. To be sure that you are hiring the right people, identify specific criteria that candidates should meet, use these criteria to create a set of questions to use during interviews, and develop a consistent interview and assessment process.

Tatge, Pamela K., Sheryl A. Moore and Nancy S. Robinson. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Management

Hiring Guide: Hiring the Best Technical Communicator

Whether you sell widgets or wisdom, bicycles or bytes, a technical communicator makes sure that your best thinking is reflected on paper and online. Hiring a technical communicator is the same as hiring any qualified professional. This online guide offers some suggestions to help you find and select the best technical communicator for your job.

STC West Coast Canada (2003). Careers>Management>Interviewing

Hiring Right: Road to Success

Running a translation business is not easy. As small as the industry may be, we as business owners face a full set of business challenges: personnel management, sales and marketing, client relations, and the list goes on. Everyday, we go into work hoping to improve the business, to make it more successful. Sometimes we wonder, what is the killer factor? What makes some companies more successful than others?

Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Careers>Management>Interviewing

Hiring Technical Writers: Are We Looking for the Right Skills?  

Winsberg argues that the most valuable employees are those with a work ethic and analytical, organizational, and writing skills, rather than those with specific software experience.

Winsberg, Freya Y. Intercom (2000). Careers>Management

Ho-Hum, Not Another Meeting: A Delightful Experiment Changes the Way One Company Conducts Internal Meetings

Company meetings are often regarded as conservative and uninspired by those who must attend. We all know that meetings are necessary, but we also know that they can be wearisome. Not all meetings need be that way. In fact, meetings can inject some lighthearted fun into the day and stimulate the creative juices. This is a story about how a series of humdrum meetings at one consulting firm evolved into a creative expression that is as varied as the participants themselves.

Zvalo, Peter. Writer's Block (1998). Careers>Management>Workplace>Community

How Do You Deal With a CEO Who Wants to Run the IT Department?  

A CEO is enamored with technology but doesn't understand the issues involved in implementing his time- and money-hungry IT ideas. What would you do to solve this problem?

Roberts, Becky. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Technology>Collaboration

How Much Is Enough?

Conventional wisdom defines business success largely by company size; the steeper the growth curve, the better. But is this model appropriate for freelancers? Most freelancers in publishing work independently; the amount of work we can accept is limited by the number of hours we can work and how many pages we can edit, proofread, or index per hour. For this reason, if we cultivate too many clients, we’re forced to turn down projects we’d like to accept. On the other hand, few freelancers have arrangements for receiving regular, predictable assignments from clients.

Shore, Lys Ann. Editorial Freelancers Association (1995). Careers>Freelance>Management

How to Build a Nonprofit for Your Community

This article details how mozdev.org built a nonprofit organization and shows you how to do the same for your community. I'll cover fundraising, obtaining legal advice, staffing, and more.

Boswell, David. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Careers>Management>Legal

How to Conduct a Review Meeting  

Although technical reviews of many draft user’s guides, references, and help systems occur through the black box (that is, the author sends out the material, and reviewers send it back marked up, without the two ever seeing one another), many technical communicators find that a personal meeting ultimately saves time and improves communication in the process of developing a technical communication product.

Carliner, Saul. Intercom (2003). Careers>Management>Editing

How to Hire a Designer

Each year during May and June we get hundreds of calls, letters and emails from young graduates who would like to work for Showker Graphic Arts & Design or any of the Graphic Design Network web sites. This year, since we had a specific letter from a potential employer, we thought it would be cool to show graduates how we approach reviewing candidates for employment.

Showker, Fred. Design, Typography and Graphics (2001). Careers>Management>Graphic Design

How to Hire Technical Writers: A Manager's Viewpoint  

Hiring technical writers is an infrequent but important part of a manager's job. Clearly defining the job and the required skills is the first step. Then use all of your networks to find candidates. Read résumés to find those that best match your requirements. The interview team needs to be prepared to ask relevant questions that verify and expand on the résumé and samples. Compare the interview team's evaluations, then check the references of your best one or two candidates, and make a prompt offer.

Huettner, Brenda P. and Ken Jackson. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing

How to Interview and Hire People

Before you worry about interviewing, consider this: good interviewing does not make a good candidate out of a bad one. The higher the quality of the people coming in to your interviewing process, the higher the quality of those that will come out of it. Do not rely on HR or some other person to decide who enters the process. The more energy you, as a hiring manager, invest in recruiting, the better your results will be.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Careers>Interviewing>Management

How to Manage Agile Development  

This whitepaper provides an Agile development overview full of techniques, best practices and educational materials.

Leffingwell, Dean. Rally Software Development (2005). Careers>Management>Agile

How to Manage Smart People

What follows is some advice for managers on how to manager people, especially talented people. I worked for nine years at Microsoft, sometimes managing projects, sometimes managing people, but always with a manager above me. I think I’m smart, but many of the people who have worked for me definitely were. Over the years I’ve experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Careers>Management>Collaboration