Offsite Contracts: how to secure that ideal '100% telecommuting' project

[Andrew wrote this article in early 2000, and has updated it to reflect the current Silicon Valley market.]

As Bay Area traffic worsens and skilled technical professionals experience increased demand for their services, more and more technology workers are asking for opportunities that don't require them to work onsite under neon lights in a cube farm.

We're not referring to the nearly ubiquitous practice of telecommuting a day or two a week so that you can get more done with fewer interruptions. Instead, we're talking about the growing number of Technical Writers (mostly contractors) seeking work on an entirely offsite basis, or part-time, or only during non-core business hours (ie, on nights and weekends).

As Bay Area residents and commuters, Synergistech is intensely sympathetic to the family, lifestyle, geographic, and economic challenges that fuel the majority of these requests. It's not easy having a life while earning a living here.

Alas, Synergistech doesn't make hiring decisions — we broker them. Our role is to ensure that both parties understand and respect each others' perspectives, and to help work out mutually acceptable compromises.

This article complements our piece on contracting misconceptions, and is for any Technical Writer wondering why, at the beginning of the 21st century, with everyone using the same tools, and accessing information via the internet, it should still be so hard to find projects that can be handled remotely. Just as importantly, it is for those seeking a solution to what many say is an impasse.

First, let's look at the facts, then we'll offer some insight into the situation and suggestions for improving it.

The Facts

1. Hiring managers are under unprecedented pressure to deliver complex, dynamic products faster than ever.
2. Hiring managers understand that the skills they seek in a Contract Technical Writer are rare.
3. Contract Technical Writers know that, for these reasons, they are paid more than the equivalent employee.
4. Both parties know that the efficient flow of timely, reliable information is key to their mutual success. Put another way, they know that significant mis- or non-communication guarantees the project's failure.
5. Providing a contractor's computer with appropriate access to the client's network (ie, crossing the firewall) is often easier said than done, and is typically a low-priority task for busy network administrators with no direct access to or knowledge of the contractor's set-up.
6. The hiring manager's personnel — and especially the subject-matter experts (SMEs) — are usually over-extended, and for most of them clear, timely communication isn't their strong suit. In order to compensate, someone (usually the hiring manager) has to devote substantial extra resources to keeping the remote contractor 'in the loop'.
7. Even the most technically adept Contract Tech Writers have steep learning curves on new projects, so they often don't generate objective results (aka, drafts) for three to four weeks after they start work.
8. Every hiring manager has suffered at the hands of a selfish, unprincipled contractor who 'talked the talk' during the interview, but couldn't (or wouldn't) 'walk the walk' on the job.
9. The client has much more to lose than the contractor as a result of misleading or incomplete communication between local and remote resources. (For example, if the contractor isn't kept informed of relevant changes, the time spent 'working out of sync' is still billable. Also, by the time 'incompatibilities' — technical, professional, logistical, even personal — between client and contractor are detected, it's usually too late to remedy the problem and still meet the deadline. The lost expense is not salveageable, either, because contractors don't give guarantees or refunds.)

Also, although it's by no means always the case, companies paying top dollar for contract technical communicators tend to be disorganized and desperate. When we characterize companies as "dynamic, fast-paced environments" in our listings, that's usually shorthand for a workplace where the developers' priorities change a couple times a week, the product's feature set changes daily, the code and interface never freeze, and the engineers and other SMEs have become expert at playing "keep-away" (from the Tech Writer). Granted, nothing ever goes entirely as planned in even the most mature and process-driven technology companies, but in young companies chaos is the rule — often because documentation is an afterthought. Hence the need for "resourceful" candidates.

To summarize the problem, hiring managers assume a disproportionate amount of risk by hiring any contractor to create 'mission-critical' deliverables. Managers contemplating hiring an offsite Contract Technical Writer are (justifiably) even more anxious, and do all they can to reduce the project's risk of failure without further taxing existing resources.

Insights

Understanding the hiring manager's concerns will help you anticipate and address the objections you're likely to face before and during the intervew. The more successfully you can empathize with and respond to their concerns (rather than trying to persuade them of your point of view), the better results you'll get.

The manager's hiring decision is usually based on a quick assessment of the following three factors:

1. the IT team's ability to set the contractor up with reliable remote data access,
2. the willingness of the product's SMEs to communicate promptly, clearly, and fully by email and phone, and
3. the contractor's technical credentials, writing skills, (verifiable) track record of resourcefulness and reliability, and their personal compatibility with the project's key players. If the fear of being burned and left not only empty-handed and humiliated — but substantially poorer — after hiring the wrong resource outweighs the manager's conviction that you're the best person to handle their project's documentation, you lose.

Notice that, as an offsite contractor, you have control over just one of these three variables. So even if you're the heaven-sent answer to this client's technical documentation prayers, your odds of landing the contract on a purely offsite basis are never any better than one in three.

And your chances are only this good as long as the hiring manager has no other eligible candidates, to say nothing of any who'd be willing to work onsite a couple days a week (thereby neutralizing the influence of factors 'a' and 'b').

Independent Contractor Faux-Pas

Before suggesting ways to improve your prospects for landing (and keeping) offsite contract projects, let us share some examples of behavior that won't work in your favor. These are drawn from Andrew's own experience as a recruiter (since 1995) and technical publications manager (since 1988). If you recognize your own behavior in these anecdotes, know that you're not unique, but also know that Synergistech is on the lookout for such issues and won't tolerate them with our clients.

• Refusing a request for an in-person interview outside your geographic area without first receiving the client's promise to reimburse all travel and lodging expenses and provide a per-diem for time spent onsite and in transit
• Billing for travel time to and from the interview, or scheduled team meetings, without explicit prior approval from the client
• Billing overtime if you're working on a 1099 or corp-to-corp basis
• Going AWOL without making repeated attempts to communicate (in realtime) with the client. Double penalty points if you're also in possession of the client's equipment or code.
• Emailing or leaving voicemail for SMEs asking them vague, uninformed, or ambiguous questions, or requesting that they call you outside of working hours
• Failing to cooperate fully with the network administrator's attempts to give you secure network access through the client's firewall
• Putting in substantial billable time on either an unauthorized element of the project, or on work that you had previously assured the client you could handle quickly
• Billing for time spent awaiting review comments
• Failing to fully integrate reviewers' comments without providing an excellent reason (before the client checks and learns that you've omitted them)
• Simply integrating reviewers' mark-ups into an existing document (without follow-on rewrites, edits, and proofing), then claiming the result as original work worthy of Technical Writers' wages
• Billing for editing, proofreading, or production efforts on a deliverable that subsequently turns out to have egregious editing, proofing, and/or production errors (especially if they are noticed by the client's staff)
• Padding your invoice or otherwise lying about how much time you actually spent being productive on the client's behalf
• Failing to meet any deadline without ample (realtime or confirmed) warning to at least one member of the project team, and without an unimpeachable excuse
• Jeopardizing your "independent contractor" (and the company's "client") status by falling on the wrong side of the 20 Questions, especially by asking to be paid for training or reimbursed for your tools and other business expenses
• Being unreachable and/or failing to return messages for more than one (1) weekday without providing ample prior notice or a pragmatic workaround
• Doing anything that might make the hiring manager or any of the project's key players lose face with each other. Remember, there's always a polite, diplomatic, and equally effective substitute for an emotional outburst. (If you can't think of it, call us!)

We have the scars, and know first-hand what can and does go wrong when one party doesn't take its obligations seriously. If our experience is representative, it's frankly not surprising that 100-percent offsite contract opportunities are so rare. (No, we're not hiding them from you, and neither do we ever stop looking for them.)

In spite of the ugliness we've witnessed, we hope you can tell that we're sympathetic to both parties' motivations. That doesn't mean we enjoy rescue missions. We don't. And we won't take unjustifiable risks on behalf of unproven candidates. Call us foolish, but we'd actually prefer to turn a hiring manager away than to set up a contract relationship that might come back and bite us.

Our Suggestions

If you concur with our assessment of the facts influencing, and the motivations for, hiring managers' decisions in favor of an offsite contractor, we hope you'll be equally receptive to the following advice for securing and nurturing offsite contract relationships.

Securing the Project

If you're intent on working part-time, off-hours, or entirely offsite and you lack the technical skills and professional experience for which our clients are clamoring, here are some ideas to consider to build a track record:

1. Use your own personal network (of past employers, clients, friends, and associates) as a source of business. They know you, trust you, and want to help you succeed.


2. Hang out at STC or IABC meetings and look for tired, overworked contractors to whom you might subcontract.


3. If you want preferential consideration with our clients offering offsite projects, consider lowering your hourly rate (even temporarily) to make it more attractive to the hiring manager.
   
   Remember, hiring managers don't pay recruiting fees when they have a choice. Recruiters therefore seldom hear about easy-to-fill positions for which there are likely to be many qualified candidates. In this respect we are no exception, although many hiring managers report that they actually enjoy dealing with us (!).
   
   
4. Master some of the technologies for which there's a lot more demand than supply among Technical Writers, such as Java, C++, C#, .NET, XML, DITA, relational database-driven applications, middleware, data security, enterprise networking technology, SOX, and so on. There are plenty of self-paced technical training programs out there. If you want to go the extra mile, enroll in one or more of the growing number of web-based technology certification programs (from Sun, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, and others). These skills will make hiring you a much more defensible choice.

5. Harness that hubris and learn some humility. Many veteran Tech Writers respond defensively to managers' concerns and behave so badly that clients get upset. It should be self-evident, but insensitivity (ie, a lack of empathy) and reckless self-confidence (ie, arrogance) invariably causes an otherwise persuadable hiring manager to lose interest.
   
   Try seeing it their way. If you're unwilling to attend onsite meetings, spend time bonding with the engineers and other SMEs, or yield some ground in terms of project deliverables and schedules, you'll likely be perceived as aloof and unhelpful, and perhaps also as rude and unprofessional. You certainly won't be seen as a collaborative resource to whom the client can turn for well-tuned solutions.


6. Demonstrate how you've solved other clients' similar problems. Your job during the interview is to replace the hiring manager's anxiety, suspicion, and fear with hope and positive expectation. If you give them evidence of how you'd approach their project and supply sufficient assurances that you understand their challenges and are both willing and able to deliver valuable solutions (without wasting their time), most managers will be eager to hire you.
   
   If, however, you fail to address all the manager's legitimate concerns, and leave interviewers with lingering doubts about your ability to solve their problems, the client may still hire you — but they won't be entirely happy about it. So respect that they're a pragmatic professional shouldering a lot of responsibility, and do your utmost to respond honestly and positively to their concerns. We've never met a happy hiring manager who got that way by ignoring their common sense or consciously seeking more complications.


7. Finally, tie your preference for offsite, part-time, or off-hours work to your potential effectiveness on the client's behalf. Don't tell the manager a sob story about your long commute or rickety old car, and then ask for charity. Instead, make them understand how they are making it possible for you to provide them with better service. Remember, if the hiring manager doesn't win, you lose. This is not a competition or a chance to get even for perceived unfair treatment, but rather the purest form of constructive, for-profit collaboration (otherwise known as 'synergy').

Strengthening the Relationship

Once you've landed the project, don't get lazy. Here are some suggestions to make the relationship blossom.

1. Make the client happy they hired you. Listen carefully to — and actively confirm your understanding of — their needs and concerns, do your utmost to learn the product/technology they need documented (by taking courses, doing web research, reading, and asking concise questions), and deliver reliably on your commitments. When you have a track record, brainstorm with your client about useful, bottom line-enhancing (theirs, not just yours) solutions that you can actually deliver. Even if they decline your offer, they'll remember that you took their interests seriously and may reward you with repeat business later.


2. Build mutual respect and trust by doing at least as much as you promise, meeting (or even beating) your deadlines, being conscientious about anticipating and responding to challenges, doing your best to collaborate constructively with your SMEs, and above all making your hiring manager look good — unilaterally, if necessary. Don't exploit the fact that you and your client are interdependent; use it to make them love you.


3. Demonstrate gratitude. Clients seldom need you more than you need them. And even if you think they're insufficiently grateful for your impeccable contributions, at least be grateful to them for not making you work onsite.

One final, cautionary note

There are certain kinds of offsite projects for which most contract technical communicators shouldn't even apply. After more than 20 years' experience in the technology "oncoming lane," we firmly believe that it's futile (albeit exciting) to suppose that one can work effectively on a 100% offsite basis as the sole publications resource for a chaotic, essentially un-managed internet development company. Why? Not only will a contractor get minimal support for remote connectivity, but that contractor can't possibly advocate for reasonable publications solutions, let alone head off scheduling and 'planning' train wrecks, from a distance. And even if the contractor is the planet's most obsessive sender of email and voicemail, that person will be ignored because their questions (through no fault of their own) are insufficiently focused and informed. In spite of this, they will be blamed if they don't deliver what such a client finally decides it needs, when it needs it. In short, be afraid of such a situation. Be very afraid.

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