Random writerly: Anyone know off the top of the head, if you buy a book and review it, if that can be counted as a business deduction?
I'm swamped this week, but want to read and, I think, review Mira Grant's Deadline book, next week, and I thought, "Wait, can I CLAIM that?"
I'll look it up later, if no one knows, but it's just a sudden thought.
(I AM going to get an accountant, I just can't afford it yet. So I'm trying to do my best on my own for a bit.)
So, I found when I'm looking for a job, people ask me for examples of work product. As a project manager, most of my work product is property of my prior employers. And I'd think it's a really bad idea to show a potential employer/customer someone else's stuff, because it could be them you're robbing next.
Do you guys have a stack of sample docs, if you're in a field like mine? Project docs? Sample project plans are easy enough to come by--they just have to be a list of milestones of varying levels of granularity, but communication plans and requirements analyses, etc, what do you do for that shit?
I can never even find good templates (my current job doesn't have a standard) for most project deliverables.
As a tech writer, I had trouble for my first two jobs because the stuff I'd worked on was confidential. Couldn't take any samples with me.
Can you use something from a previous job, but redact identifying bits?
They're so specific, though. The work product is so in every line. Its not easy to describe a piece of software and miss the point and get across good writing,
Can you use us, or is that too far in the mists of time?
I would have to sit down and actually write this site up, but that could be a good exercise.
Oh, thank God, the Monday deadline is for ONE section of this current big project.
Oh, email, you are my friend today!!
As a tech writer, I had trouble for my first two jobs because the stuff I'd worked on was confidential. Couldn't take any samples with me.
I had a similar situation when I applied for this job. I ended up sending an article I'd written for a freelance job 10 years earlier. I think the hiring manager had to check a box marked "writing sample sent in," and that got it done.
FYI, here are some suggested guidelines for editorial freelancers: [link]