Posts about “Productivity”
If you’re more concerned with your company culture than the size of your pay cheque, your might be interested in this Vancouver start-up. Jiibe is a user-generated service that matches your value system to a compatible company based on a questionnaire you fill out.
I can see this site being really useful to young Millennials who care a great deal about the softer aspects of job satisfaction and are in a process of self-discovery.
In this rocky economic climate, marketing yourself has never been more crucial if you want to survive the inevitable cutbacks. When it comes to technical writing, it’s a useful exercise to understand and appreciate what companies look for in a writer.
Lyndsey Amott, in an article on her website, stresses that industry knowledge should not be a primary deciding factor when mulling over suitable candidates. Her top three must-haves are:
DocTrain chugged along today and picked up some speed with a heavy emphasis on social media. As with yesterday’s post, I’ll give you the skinny and the slides on each presentation as well my pick for ‘what’s hot’.
Great people, good food, and leading-edge content. Kudos to the organizers and to the Marriott Pinnacle for hosting this terrific event. And a huge thanks also to the Westcoast STC for the opportunity to attend.
The conference proper kicked off today with some excellent speakers across the board. There were a lot of presentations, so I’m going to keep it short and give you the gist of each one along with my personal “what’s hot” recommendation on something juicy, cool or just plain geeky that I gleaned from the talk. If the slides for the talk are available online, I’ll embed them as well.
So without further ado, here’s my take on the presentations that I attended.
Today I attended a pre-conference workshop on Simplified Technical English (STE) at DocTrain West. Berry Braster, director of Tedopres, presented the benefits of writing documentation using standardized, unambiguous English, especially when materials are being translated into other languages.
The implementation of STE involves developing a company-specific dictionary and using documentation software to aid in the mechanical side of ensuring uniformity of language across the board. The goal is to ultimately reduce costs and facilitate quality assurance.
The May edition of alive magazine is out, and I have two articles published in it this month. A few months ago I interviewed stress guru Eli Bay about his relaxation techniques. Take a deep breath, relax for a few minutes and read his insights.
I also wrote a short piece on the rise of the mosquito population in our new era of rising temperatures. Mosquitoes love warm, moist climates, and they’re getting a lot of that these days.
This conference kicked off in Vancouver today and is the place to be if you’re facing content management issues in your professional life as a technical writer, or if you want to stay on the leading edge of developments in the field. Each day has a specific theme. Day 1 (today) is about content, day 2 about technology, and day 3 about user relationships. I’ll be volunteering there the whole day tomorrow, and will tell you all about it later (if you’re going, be sure to say hello).
Peter Legge, CEO of Canada Wide (the behemoth that publishes just about every magazine in Western Canada), recently wrote a little book on how to jump-start your career.
He advises us to model ourselves after Leonardo da Vinci, who believed that seven key elements allowed him to become one of the most incredible innovators of our time. Here they are:
Curiosita: An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
What kind of perks do you get at work? Is it better to have a meaty salary and work like a dog - or have fun all day and get paid less? This dilemma is exemplified in a comparison of arch enemies Microsoft and Google. Microsoft pays really well but I’ve heard from people who work there that it’s a fast-track to slavery and that you can kiss your nights and weekends goodbye.