October 7 Meeting Recap: Employment Progression

by Debbie Kerr, President and Ursula McCoy, Employment Manager

Our first general meeting - an employment progression - was on Tuesday, October 7. While it was an intimate group, it was an excellent experience, and well worth the trip to Room 1301, the Fishbowl, at the Davis Centre (University of Waterloo).

We had four speakers:

Susan Malcolm (Career Consultant, Career Development Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University) - job searches, cover letters and resumes
Cheryl MacDonald (Resource Manager, ITS, The Economical Insurance Group) - the interview process
Kate O'Donnell (Independent Contractor as a technical communicator) - contract work
Carol Lawless (Independent Contractor as a technical communicator) - how to sell a company on the benefits of using a technical communicator

Process

Usually, when we have an employment progression, we have four speakers on topics that relate to getting a job / developing your career, and people get to spend time with three of the four speakers by moving from group to group every 20 to 25 minutes. This year, however, our progression was actually one large group - presenters interspersed amongst the attendees.

This approach had many benefits:

Everyone could hear all speakers without missing out on one. Sometimes when you select which speakers you want to meet, you miss a gem that comes from a totally different source.
Speakers could hear other's information, which enabled them to learn from each other and to confirm the validity of their own information.
Since the topics are all inter-related, it was great to be able to go back and ask a speaker a question, even if the presentation has moved on to someone else.
No one had to leave their group to get food or drink, because it was set in the middle of the group - we even passed it around. It was like a precursor to Thanksgiving, only there wasn't any fighting.

Suggestions and Recommendations

Job Searches, Resumes, and Cover Letters - Susan Malcolm

In your cover letter, make two or three points about what makes you so great for the job. Employers need to understand how you would fit in the organization and be able to see you in the role.
Highlight your skills and accomplishments. You will provide more detailed information about these items in your interview.
Explain how other skills you may have will compensate for any questions that you do not have.
Look over several job postings for similar positions and identify key words that are used throughout the ads. These are the key words that you must also have in your resume.
Provide only enough information to get an interview. A resume's purpose is not to get you a job. That is where the interview comes in.
Identify concrete results. Provide statistics, whenever possible, which demonstrate your value.

Interviews - Cheryl MacDonald

Have a profile. Be able to provide an overview of yourself that shows a logical process and which highlights the positions that you have held and the industries that you have worked in.
Determine your three key strengths that you want to emphasize in the interview
Come up with 10 stories to highlight your accomplishments and use the STAR approach (Situation, Task, Actions, Results) when you describe them in the interview. This includes any difficulties you may have had in meeting your goals, how you overcame them, and lessons that you learned.
Know your audience. The questions your interviewer will ask you will vary depending on the role of the person interviewing you - Human Resources manager, technical lead, or hiring manager.
Have a 'leaving' story. Be prepared to explain why you left any position without getting into too much detail. Do not supply any personal information.
Determine your future plans. For example, be able to identify what skills you would like to learn and be prepared to share your career goals.

Contract Work - Kate O'Donnell

Use agencies, especially when you are starting out. This lessens the amount of footwork you have to do to get a job. Check out agencies if they will represent you well.
Friends, professional contacts, and social situations are great potential ways of learning about available work. You increase your contacts with each job that you have, which means you have more possible leads to other jobs.
Monitor company's websites. This enables you to remain current about common skill sets that are required. It also enables you to see when a company has a high turnover rate.
Provide samples, but ensure that you do not include confidential material. If possible, leave some of your samples behinds. Identify any areas that may have been particularly difficult when creating your samples, and identify how you overcame them.
Create a boilerplate contract. For some employers, this may be the first time that they are using a contract technical communicator, and they may not know what should be included in a contract.
Provide a guarantee. If potential employers know that they do not have to pay if they don't like the results of your work, they are more likely to try and use a contract technical communicator.

Selling Technical Communication - Carol Lawless

Don't try to sell hiring a technical communicator by describing what one can do. Quantify how hiring you would help the company's bottom line.
Find a champion within the company who knows and understands the benefits of hiring a technical communicator.
Describe what problems a technical communicator can resolve. For example, you might say that a technical communicator can help improve communication within the company and can improve the company's image with its customers.
Determine a company's areas of concerns, for example, the cost of training new employees when people leave the company. If you can identify how you, as a technical communicator, can identify how hiring you will save the company time and money, you stand a better chance of getting hired.

Additional Resources on the Internet

Door Prizes

Spicer Corporation (now Open Text) donated the evening's door prizes. The winners were Carol Lawless and Evan Jones.

Conclusion

You should never pass up the opportunity to attend a meeting that relates to starting or developing your career. It's like saying no to a networking experience and wondering why you don't have any connections. There is always something new to learn, and sometimes you might be surprised at where you get the information that is the most valuable to you. While a speaker is presenting on a particular topic, they have a wide range of knowledge.

Meetings about employment are not just for people who are entering the field; they are for everyone who wants to stay current on what is expected and needed in the job market. Who could possibly not need to know more about job searches, resumes, interviews, contracting options, and selling communication to a company? I'm sure that everyone who attended the meeting learned something. Maybe next time you can join us.

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