You say you don’t want just any technical publications job (or contract). Great! We want to be your ally in the search for rewarding work. Assuming that you have the skills and experience hiring managers seek, we can be most effective on your behalf if you’ll first provide honest, thoughtful responses to the following questions.
1. What kinds of responsibilities do you seek?
Specifically, we’d like to know the title you’d like, duties you desire, departments you wish to serve (eg, training, product development, marketing, etc), and media you’d like to deliver in (eg, hardcopy, web-based help, HTML-based online doc, JavaDoc, etc).
2. What size team do you want to join?
Do you want to be the first writer aboard in a company or department? Or would you like to join an established team with a manager in place and a style guide, so you can focus on what you enjoy and not have to fight fires?
3. For which audience(s) do you want to create content?
Most software documentation, for example, is written either for untechnical end users, database- and applications-savvy system administrators, or highly technical software developers. Marketing collateral is usually written for decision-makers or the trade press. And training courseware can be for either technical or untechnical audiences.
4. Where do you want to work, and do you prefer or need to work part-time or be offsite a substantial amount of the time?
Which cities are at the boundaries of your acceptable commuting area? Alternately, how many miles from home are you willing to travel? With respect to telecommuting, how many days/week would you consider the minimum acceptable amount of offsite time? If you prefer or require part-time opportunities, how many days per week are you willing to work, and do you anticipate ever being able to work full-time (initially and/or subsequently)?
5. Do you want to work on contract or as a staff employee?
Synergistech can find you a salaried ('staff') job or a 1099- or W2-based contract project. We distribute our detailed job listings to two private listservers (one each for staff and contract positions), and encourage you to subscribe to one or both as a means of finding out about new opportunities as they come our way. If we learn of an opportunity that represents an exact match for your skills and haven’t had sufficient response from our list broadcast, we'll explicitly suggest it to you by email. However, to ensure consideration, it’s best to read our emailed listings and, every now and then, to review the comprehensive, up-to-date list of open positions at our web site.
On a related note, many candidates ask us only to notify them if we hear about completely offsite, off-hours, or part-time work. Alas, we seldom see these kinds of projects, and when we do post them, we are invariably overwhelmed with responses. For more complete insight into the paucity of this kind of listing, and what you can do about it, read and heed our article on offsite contracts.
Choosing whether to contract or work for a salary is challenging, but it usually boils down to a lifestyle decision. We've heard it characterized (only somewhat cynically) as "a choice between the illusion of security and the illusion of independence." If you’re undecided, consider some popular misconceptions about contracting.
6. What do you want to earn?
We need you to share with us the minimum salary or hourly rate that will meet your needs, even though you may be able to earn substantially more. We have a strong financial incentive to secure for you as high a salary or contract rate as possible, so you’re not compromising yourself by giving us this information. Bear in mind, though, that we won't encourage you to consider opportunities that pay below your threshold, so if the number you give us is unrealistically high, you may defeat your own interests.
7. If you're looking for a staff position, what kinds of benefits do you need?
Almost all companies provide their employees with full medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage that's either free or so inexpensive you barely notice. Most also let you participate in a 401(k) plan immediately or within three months of your start date. But that's where the similarities between small, 'promising' ventures and older, established companies end.
Consider the value, and relative importance, of perks such as tuition reimbursement, more than two weeks’ paid vacation, a matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan (ESPP), flexible spending account (FSA), family or domestic-partner health coverage, corporate profit-sharing/bonuses, employee assistance plan (EAP) for subsidized counselling or rehabilitation treatment, health-club membership or onsite gym, subsidized commuting expenses or parking, sabbaticals and, of course, stock options.
8. What kind of culture do you seek?
Every company will tell you it seeks smart, motivated workers who achieve results. Only a few consciously understand their own value system, let alone have the courage to articulate it frankly. By working with 'insiders' (hiring managers) on behalf of ‘outsiders’ (our candidates), we see these companies' biases as well as what really makes them tick, and can steer you toward or away from certain of them based on your preferences. Equal opportunity employment (EOE) guidelines notwithstanding, hiring choices come down to 'chemistry' at least as often as one's professional credentials.
9. What kind of technology do you like to work with?
Do you want to work on the bleeding edge (often as part of a company that not only develops a ‘revolutionary’ product but also must create a whole new market for it)?
Or would you prefer taking fewer risks with a company developing an ‘evolutionary’ product for an established market? Just as important, to which (if any) of the most marketable technology 'sectors' do you want exposure?
Among our clients, those sectors include database-based applications (including e-commerce), development tools, telecommunications/data networking, enterprise application integration, and electronic design automation.
10. Feeling lucky? Ready for a pre-IPO ride?
Some jobseekers call stock options (especially in a pre-public company) ‘lottery tickets’ and routinely leave them on the table, holding out for cash instead. Others consider them the only incentive that really matters.
Your attitude toward options is a direct reflection not only of your understanding of these complex financial instruments but also of your personal priorities and lifestyle choices. If you're tempted to accept a position for its stock options, we urge you to do some serious homework first.
Ask yourself not only how likely this particular company is to thrive, but how you’ll feel if it doesn’t. How willing are you to take responsibility for the financial and tax implications of dealing with options? What are you risking, and who (other than you) is affected by that risk? What, if anything, must you compromise to actually vest your options — and are you sure such compromise is really worthwhile?
Of course, stock options aren’t the only reason to join a pre-IPO company. Here's a glimpse of what you can expect in a mature, public company, as well as in the 'other kind':
a. Established public companies invest in their employees' professional development and have a corporate infrastructure that results in (relatively) sane schedules, reasonable hours, and well-defined responsibilities. As employees’ skills and interests evolve, they can transfer within the company and gain invaluable hands-on experience in different disciplines without jeopardizing their compensation and benefits. Employees typically stay employed with such companies longer, do higher quality work, and have more balanced lives. Many such companies also offer stock options, and almost all let you buy stock at a 15% discount to its lowest recent price (via an employee stock purchase plan).
b. Pre-IPO startups attract youthful overachievers who want to make a difference. Your job description is pretty much yours to write, as long as you handle your core deliverables and meet your deadlines. Don’t expect pubs-friendly management or an appreciation for the value of process or the art of communication. Do, however, expect long hours, weaker benefits, unrealistic schedules, poorly defined responsibilities, and negligible opportunity for formal professional development. On the flip side, you can also expect equity worth between 0.1 and 0.5 percent of the company's value if you're one of the first 50 employees, which is as close to a guarantee of wealth as you can get should the company ‘go all the way’.
Granted, you probably won’t have to choose between a process-oriented, 'no surprises' 40-hour week and a testosterone-soaked, reactive roller-coaster ride, but it’s still valuable for us to know which of the above options, 'a' or 'b', appeals more.
11. To which other companies have you sent your resume in the last six months, and are you ‘close to closure’ with any of them?
Obviously, if we need to fire the afterburners on your behalf, or if any kind of company/industry/location/role, etc) attracts you more than others, it’s important that we know that sooner rather than later. Hiring managers hate to be teased with resumes of promising candidates who aren't serious about an opportunity.
Do your best to answer these questions for us, and (assuming your skills are in demand) we’ll do a much better job on your behalf. If you honestly don’t know your preference on an item (for example, you value sanity but are seriously tempted by pre-IPO riches), please just tell us that. It’s okay to be undecided, but if you tell us "absolutely no pre-IPOs for me" and we steer you exclusively toward stable, sane, public companies only to see you climb aboard a dotcom, we won’t pretend not to be disappointed. Similarly, if you encourage us to bring you a certain kind of opportunity and we deliver, then you use our clients’ offer(s) to negotiate better compensation with your current client or employer, we’ll probably consider that you acted in bad faith and be much less inclined to help the next time you’re on the market. We seek to be your career-development ally, not an unwitting accomplice in the quest for a raise.