yesthattom: (Default)
yesthattom ([personal profile] yesthattom) wrote2007-01-08 01:56 pm

Fortune published "100 Best Companies to Work For"

Google is #1. This is the first year they qualify to be on the list, so starting out at #1 is pretty cool.

In a related note, I really do like working here. ...and I’m hiring... ...in NY, Zurich, and Mountain View...

[identity profile] tgeller.livejournal.com 2007-01-08 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm looking for writing contracts. Know of any at Google (or elsewhere)?

[identity profile] tgeller.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure what the smiley's for, so I'll assume it's a sincere question...

I'm competent to publish in English and Esperanto. I can get by in French and Dutch, and have some understanding of Russian and Yiddish.

[identity profile] redsonja.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:17 am (UTC)(link)
If the writing you intend to do is technical, one would think you'd be asking him about O'Reilly rather than Google.

[identity profile] redsonja.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
I'm perfectly aware that Google would have spots for technical writers. Any large company would. I'm the one selling the Dec references on EBay, remember?

Please do not assume that I don't know what I am talking about or have not done research, simply because I opine that he might prefer to write for a public publisher instead of a private company.

[identity profile] yesthattom.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry for making that assumption. I must have misunderstood what you had written.

[identity profile] redsonja.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
Eh, no biggie. I didn't explain WHY I wrote what I did, after all.

Hopefully my reply to him below clarified the reason for my opinion.

I am still not quite sure why you friended me, but have no particular desire to start communications on a hostile note. So no offense taken, hopefully none given. I can be a snarky wiseass sometimes, but I'm not here to piss anyone off.

[identity profile] tgeller.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the link -- I see a couple there for "temporary" positions. I'd ideally do remote freelancing, but would commute to Mountain View for the right gig.

[identity profile] tgeller.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, I see -- thanks. I have some connections at O'Reilly, but I don't think that's the best match for me: I'm not enough of a hard-core tech for their readers, most of whom are looking for detailed technical information from leaders in the field. I excel at understanding and describing technology in a more-general way: for example, with this article about computer-based exhibits in museums (PDF, 1.3MB).

But maybe I should revisit O'Reilly... after all, Tom's book isn't really about *technology* per se...

[identity profile] redsonja.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
It's funny that you say that, I've found the opposite to be true. I feel that O'Reilly's success as a publisher is rooted in the accessibility of their books. I've even heard them sneered at (admittedly by a not very nice guy) as being "written for noobs". I don't consider that to be an insult, especially considering that it came from someone who failed the Solaris certification test that I passed because I bothered to read the training guide that he felt was too "beneath" him.

My own opinion is that a lot of the people who write for O'Reilly are considered industry leaders not only because they understand the technology in detail, but because they also know how to explain it in an accessible manner to people who've never seen it before.

Private company technical writing can vary wildly in comparison. You can get a lot of excruciating technical specifics that need to stay company internal, or they'll striate versions of the data based on support contract level (or in the military, security classification). The lifespan of a document can be very short. Of course, that's job security right there, but it seems to me that a product and it's documentation should be robust enough to last for a while. Once you're on the inside you're documenting bugs, patches, version upgrades and spec changes galore. I worked at Sun for four years, and geez o pete but those people went through the dead trees (or digital equivalent) when it came to documentation.

I guess it's all about what you want to write. I can't see myself as a technical writer, dude, especially the company internal kind, so more power to ya. I'd probably get pissed off at having to constantly twiddle a document to fit a product, to the point where I'd just want to fix the product to fit the document instead. :D

Nice that you covered the Asia Society. I was there recently. They've added an audio presentation that you can access via cel phone as you walk around the exhibits.

[identity profile] n5red.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
I find the O'Reilly books to be extremely accessable. In particular, I can highly recommend "Time Management for Syatem Administrators", I keep loaning it out to coworkers.

[identity profile] redsonja.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Indeed. I asked some questions about it on Tom's web site, but it was in reply to an older post and perhaps was not seen, so perhaps I can ask again here: are either adult ADD/ADHD and/or the "caffeine geek subculture" addressed therein?

[identity profile] yesthattom.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I replied. Sadly the system doesn't email you if someone replies to your reply. (and the CSS is screwed up right now on the comment pages... dang!)

I'm going to turn my answer into a full post next week.

[identity profile] yesthattom.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
They give it back?

People should steal it, and threaten to beat you up if you ask for it back.

You should buy dozens of copies and hand them out rather than risk daggers and funny looks when you ask for it back.

(Wow, I gotta cut down on the caffeine and askaninja.com videos)

[identity profile] n5red.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 07:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, perhaps if I had more stable employment, particularly in some area where your book hasn't gotten as good a distribution. Like, say for example, Zurich.

[identity profile] tgeller.livejournal.com 2007-01-11 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the comments. I'm not really going for pure technical writing: I'll take it if it's in my field of expertise, but I'd rather work on things that are more mainstream. O.K., so an IEEE journal isn't exactly "mainstream", but people *do* read them for entertainment as well as work. :)

The tabletop article was fun to do.

[identity profile] yesthattom.livejournal.com 2007-01-09 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
I only know of the full-time positions on our web site.