Scenes from a staffing office
“So, I see that you’ve done some “end user and technical documentation.” Can you tell me about that?”
“Uh, what?”
“The documentation you did. What was it for?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I’m reading the sentence directly from your resume. It says you did ‘end user and technical documentation.’ What were you documenting?”
“Oh! Well, see, one day the network was down. So we had to log the calls by hand, on paper.”
*Tiff wishes for a wall to bang her head against*
—
“Well, the job description says you want a web developer who will also manage your network, and that’s a very rare sort of person. They’re very divergent skill sets.”
“I don’t want a web developer!”
“Your job description specifically says that 50% of the person’s time will be spent on web development, and 15% on database administration.”
“But I don’t want a web developer! I want a programmer!”
“A programmer who writes code for the web IS a web developer.”
“Oh.”
—
“This HTML Programmer you’re asking me for really sounds more like a Unix Systems Administrator.”
“We don’t need a Unix administrator. We need someone to do HTML and install and configure Solaris.”
“A person who can install and configure Solaris is called a Unix Systems Administrator. An HTML coder who designs websites will weep if you ask him to configure a Unix box.”
“Oh.”
—
I shouldn’t complain. It’s their ignorance that makes my job necessary. But yesterday I was biting my tongue a couple of times to keep from adding, “…so STOP ARGUING with me! You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about and I DO!”
August 2nd, 2005 at 3:21 pm
Everyone’s a Tech Writer
HAVE YOU DONE TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION?
Everyone in IT has done some technical documentation in their time, right? So why not put it in your resume.. we’ll tell you why.
Magic Pot of Jobs provides some comic relief:
August 3rd, 2005 at 4:35 am
Actually, I code in HTML (DHTML, JavaScript, DOM, XMLHttpRequest, et. al), can install and configure a Solaris box (7, 8, or 9), and know my way around IOS on Cisco 2K-7K boxes. Not quite so divergent skillsets, methinks. Either that or I am an anomaly…
August 3rd, 2005 at 9:37 am
But you don’t apply for jobs calling yourself an HTML coder. You’re a web developer, you’re a systems administrator, but you’re not just an “HTML Programmer,” and while you could do it, you wouldn’t get hired on JUST to do that.