Round Up the People
Once you have identified the resources required for your project, you need to round up those resources. It is time to switch to your Human Resources hat! What's your objective?
In short, find the people who both have the skill sets you need and who understand the basic business process — deliver the best product possible within the prescribed budget and schedule!!!
This probably describes most of you, as a consultant in business for yourself, you need to at least have a working comprehension of all of these skill sets. Where are you going to find people with the others? You can round up your resources from a variety of locations, most of which will not cost you very much of your operating budget either:
- First Stop? — Head for the STC Pages
- Next Up — Search the Internet
- Check those Target Market Publications
- Check other Professional Association Web Pages
- Attend Meetings
- Form Strategic Alliances
- Consider Students and Recent Graduates
Head for the STC Pages
One thing that you will notice in reviewing the various seach engine "hits". More and more of these are STC related. They are not just at the Society Web page, but they are at the chapter level as well. A table at the bottom of this page provides descriptions and links to some key STC pages in this arena. Many chapters have free for members and nominal fee for nonmembers job postings. In addition, many also offer opportunities for members looking for work opportunities.
Last year, I needed to hire a technical communicator for my client's Toronto office. I posted the position on Toronto Chapter's Web site. From this posting, I received 14 applications. After screening and interviewing them all, I was down to five individuals whose qualifications were very near 100% of my requirements. As it ended up, my client extended offers to three of the five. Two accepted, and the third had received a concurrent offer which he ended up accepting.
You also may want to contact the STC chapter of your target market to get the contact information of the chapter's employment manager. That person may have first-hand information about someone whose qualifications are a match for your requirements. Also, the chapter may advertise employment information via other methods, including telephone hotlines, chapter listservs, and newsletters.
Finally, within the STC arena, nothing beats networking. There are no better places to network than at STC meetings, regional conferences and the Annual Conference (2500-3500 technical communicators, all in one place!)
| STC Home Page | This links to the STC Web site. |
| STC Career Center | This links to a Society-level search engine for position openings. You can search by geography, position type, salary or bill rate, and by contract or permanent. You can also post positions to this site at no charge. |
| STC Chapter Locator | Use this page to identify an STC Chapter and its leadership. It provides an e-mail link to each Chapter presidents and a hyperlink to the Chapter's web site. Check these chapter Web sites for local job opportunities. |
| Regional Locator | This identifies the STC international regions and leadership. |
| STC SIGs | This page provides information about the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) sponsored by STC and links to the various SIG Web sites. |
Search the Internet
Target Market Publications
Most communities of any size have business publications that are geographically centric. This is a good place for checking for resources in your target market, which typically used to be the geographic vicinity of the client. Of course, these days, with the Internet, FTP, and inexpensive global communication, our target markets can literally be the world. This includes target locations for the human resources you need for your project.
I worked on one project where my responsibilities were development on both paper-based and online documentation from my home in Tampa, FL. The balance of this project's team included project management (Media, PA), software development (Palmira, NY), product testing (St. Petersburg, FL), technical support (Lexington, KY), help desk development (Los Angeles, CA), help desk support (Little Rock, AK), software production and packaging, and documentation printing (Cincinnati, OH), Marketing (Louisville, KY), and product rollout (West Palm Beach, FL).
Every week, we all participated in a teleconference to report on status within our respective areas. We did, on two occasions, gather as a group to meet. If you do hire people on a distance configuration, I recommend that you include in your budget resources to bring yourself, your resources, and your client together for a face to face meeting. This should happen towards the beginning of the project. In general, people respond better to each other when they can associate a face and personality with a name and a voice.
Other resources to check in your target market include trade publications, local newspapers, the chamber of commerce, and the Yellow Pages. While you are checking the local paper, make it a habit to keep apprised of meetings of clubs and professional associations that might have contacts of interest or even potential contacts of interest. For example, you might attend a photography club. You never know when you might need a photographer.
I made one excellent contact via the local court reporter videographers. This woman focused her business on recording trials and related testimony. As it turned out, I needed to create a marketing video for a client. I contracted with the court videographer. In turn, she had contacts with individuals who could create animated graphics, who could lay a professional narration, and who had sophisticated editing machines. The video was a huge success!
Check Other Professional Association Web Pages
While I am certainly STC biased in terms of finding the best in our professions, there are many other professional organizations and societies that focus on other "flavors" of communication and related professions. The following table lists a few of these Associations, including contact information, and comments. You can click the association's name to go to its Web site.
| American Medical Writers Association 40 West Gude Drive, Suite 101 Rockville MD 20850-1192 301.294.5303 |
AMWA exists to help medical authors improve their writing skills, and to provide continuing education seminars, workshops, related publications, and networking opportunities for those who specialize in medical technical communication. |
| American Society for Information Science 1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 501 Silver Spring MD 20910 301.495.0900 |
This organization offers a JobLine (ASIS's regular listing of career opportunities in the information professions) and the ASIS Placement Service, which brings job-seekers and employers together at ASIS conferences. All members have a listing in and receive a copy of the Handbook & Directory. |
| American Society for Training and Development 1640 King St. Box 1443 Alexandria VA 22313-2043 703. 683.-8100 |
The ASTD Job Bank provides a mechanism for both those seeking positions and those seeking training specialists to post and search for training and performance opportunities. |
| American Society of Indexers 10200 West 44th Avenue, Suite 304 Wheat Ridge CO 80033 303.463.2887 |
ASI is a professional society of a very specialized segment of technical communication — indexing. Some estimate that as much as 30% of writing time should be allocated for this process. Keep in mind that this translates to key words and Metafile development in the respective Help and Web development worlds. |
| American Translators Association 225 Reinekers Lane Suite 590 Alexandria VA 22314 703.683.6100 |
Translation into the language(s) of your target audience is an increasingly mainstream component of the technical communication deliverable set. You need to have someone complete the task who both understands the technology or subject area and who is fluent in both the source and target language. ATA can provide a listing of member translation agencies. A good translation agency account manager can advise you on tricks for writing to facilitate translation. Unless you are sure the translation is one shot, try to convince your client to invest extra up front to develop a glossary. (If a prospective translation agency does not suggest this to you, then you may want to consider not doing business with that agency. In the long run, this glossary can save you money and can help ensure translation consistency from document to document. |
| Association for Business Communication Box B8-240 Baruch College One Bernard Baruch Way New York, NY 10010 646.312.3726 |
ABC’s focus is on fostering excellence in business communication scholarship, research, education, and practice. |
| Special Interest Group on Design of Documentation 1515 Broadway, 17th Fl. New York NY 10036 212.869.7440 |
SIGDOC promotes a mechanism for contact with senior professions in many disciplines of documentation and networking opportunities. |
| Association for Educational Communications and Technology 1800 N. Stonelake Dr. Suite 2 Bloomington, IN 47404 812.335.7675 |
AECT promotes the improvement of instruction through the utilization of media and technology. It provides a forum for the exchange of information among professionals in educational technology: audio-visual media, library and microcomputer specialists; education administrators; researchers; teachers and professors; learning resource specialists; curriculum developers; television producers and directors; and a variety of other professionals who require expertise in instructional technology. |
| Association for Women in Communications 3337 Duke Street Alexandria, VA 23214 703.370.7436 |
The AWC promotes itself as "an organization that recognizes the complex relationships that exist across communication disciplines. Modern communicators must demonstrate competence in varied disciplines and be able to network and make career moves across the broad spectrum of communication fields." Personally, I have a problem with any organization that bases membership on a parameter that has nothing to do with technical communication skills — in this case, gender. Nevertheless, it does offer an opportunity for locating potential resources as their membership embraces communicators in a wide array of communication,: print and broadcast journalism, television and radio production, film, advertising, public relations, marketing, graphic design, multimedia design, and photography. |
| Association
of Teachers of Technical Writing Dept. of Rhetoric and Writing Studies San Diego State University San Diego CA 92182-4452 619.594.5238 |
The ATTW Web site features an interactive interface. If you have a job opening you would like to announce, you post the job opening, and users can view the updated post immediately. |
| Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication New Mexico State University English Department, Box 3E Las Cruces NM 88003 505.646.2027 |
This organization has an academic focus. Members of CPTSC receive assistance in developing new programs and administering existing programs, opportunities to communicate with program leaders and other communication associations, and encouragement toward the promotion of research as a basis for program development. |
| Council of Science Editors 2100 Sunset Hills Road Suite 130 Reston, VA 20190 703.437.4377 |
CSE’s mission is to promote excellence in the communication of scientific information. CSE's purpose is to serve members in the scientific, scientific publishing, and information science communities by fostering networking, education, discussion, and exchange and to be an authoritative resource on current and emerging issues in the communication of scientific information. |
| International Digital Enterprise Alliance 1421 Prince St., Suite 230 Alexandria VA 22314-2888 703.837.1070 |
IDEAlliance is an established industry organization with a diverse and impressive membership that has been developing, educating and validating best practices in publishing and information technology for 40 years. Through special interest groups, conferences and its active membership, IDEAlliance offers its members an inside track into how the publishing and content-driven supply chain can and will be exploited to respond to both traditional and emerging pressures to reduce cost, increase the top line, and develop new lines of business. |
| Human Factors and Ergonomics Society P.O. Box 1369 Santa Monica CA 90406-1369 310.394.1811 |
HFES offers a resume bank for specialists in human factors and ergonomics. They also offer a position placement service, but it is expensive, ranging from $300 to $1,600. |
| Professional Communication Society IEEE Operations Center, Admission and Advancement Department 445 Hoes Lane, PO Box 459 Piscataway NJ 08855-0459 |
IEEE PCS focuses on helping engineers and technical communicators develop skills in written and oral presentation. This organization has membership that are very anchored in the technical side of communication, as IEEE membership is required for PCS membership. |
| International Association of Business Communicators One Hallidie Plaza, #600 San Francisco CA 94102 415.544.4700 |
This organization features a chapter network and posted job opportunities. |
| International Communication Association 1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 202.530.9855 |
ICA focuses on research in the area human communication. Areas include interpersonal, mass, organizational, and international communication, often supported with information technologies, and focused on a plethora of important social topics such as education, gender, health, language, law, politics, and popular culture. Members approach the study of human communication from a variety of social scientific, humanistic, and philosophical perspectives using diverse theoretical, methodological, and political orientations. |
| International Society for Performance Improvement 1400 Spring Street, Suite 260 Silver Spring, MD USA 20910 301.587.8570 |
ISPI provides a Job Bank to match up employers with prospective employees in the Performance Improvement, Training & Development industry. You can post job listings for $25-1500. |
| National Association of Government Communicators 201 Park Washington Court Falls Church VA 22046-4527 703.538.1787 |
NAGC is a national not-for-profit professional network of federal, state and local government employees who disseminate information within and outside government. Its members are editors, writers, graphic artists, video professionals, broadcasters, photographers, information specialists and agency spokespersons. |
| The National Association of Science Writers P.O. Box 890 Hedgesville, WV 25427 304.754.5077 |
NASW features making the mail list available to members, which are individuals who specialize in science writing and the free flow of science news. |
| National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Rd. Urbana IL 61801 217.328.3870 |
NCTE provides a service whereby anyone can post job announcements if the work pertains to English language arts, including literature, composition, creative writing, reading, etc. |
| Public Relations Society of America 33 Maiden Lane, 11th Fl. New York, NY 10038-5150 212.460.1400 |
PRSA offers to members, the Green Book of Public Relations companies, the Red Book or PRSA Counselors Academy, and the Blue Book of PRSA members. |
| Society of Logistics Engineers 8100 Professional Pl., Ste. 211 Hyattsville, Maryland 20785 USA 301.459.8446 |
SOLE offers members access to an online job board, which offers employment opportunities posted by various member companies, as well as resumes and background information on qualified logisticians seeking employment. |
| Usability Professionals’ Association 140 N. Bloomingdale Road Bloomingdale IL 60108-1017 630.980.4997 |
UPA offers job listings for $100 each. They also provide links to other sites that list usability-related job opportunities. |
Attend Meetings
Twice already, I have suggested that you should try to attend as many meetings of professional societies (especially STC), clubs, and related organizations, as possible. Why? Nothing replaces face-to-face meetings. A resume does not tell you nearly as much about a person as a 5-minute conversation. And, I believe, contacts in networking environment can sometimes be much more telling about a person you might want to consider than would be a formal interview. (Especially if the person doesn’t know you are “sizing him or her up” as a potential candidate!)
Form Strategic Alliances
It may be to your benefit to partner with other consulting groups or consultants to the mutual benefit of each of you and of your client. Of course, these types of relationships form on case by case basis. These types of alliances can be invaluable, especially with consultant groups in the closely related core competencies we talked about earlier.
Consider Students & Recent Graduates
Last, but not least, consider using senior and graduate students to complete some of your specialized tasks. This can offer you both tangible and intangible benefits.
Obviously, initially, you can get less expensive labor. This might be needed for some of the relatively rudimental, labor-intensive tasks.
Second, you help the student out that turns out to be the next "superstar" in our profession, and chances are that person might work for you for a while, and probably will always be astrategic contact.
Finally, there is a lot of personal satisfaction in giving one just entering the market her or his "first break." Remember when you were looking for yours? I'll bet you also remember the one who gave you that break!