By Tom Barnett

Networking at Chapter Meetings

Networking is one of the most important—if not the most important—activities for job-seekers. Even if you're happy with your job, you should always be looking ahead to the next one.

"Friends, friends of friends, a barber, a neighbor, and former coworkers are often the best resources for job seekers, especially in a market with far more people out of work than job openings, job placement experts say."
—Kelly Pate, Denver Post

Because the vast majority of job openings are never advertised, job-seekers need to have a network of contacts that can provide support, information, and job leads. Networking is about establishing relationships. It increases your visibility, gives you information, and establishes personal connections.

STC strives to enhance employment opportunities by providing a warm and welcoming networking community.

Judith Gerberg, Director of Gerberg & Co Career Counseling, recommends joining professional organizations (such as STC) and attending at least one activity per month. At its core, networking should be fun. If you seek out people who care about the same things you do, you'll enjoy networking and won't view it as a chore.

Networking through Service

One of the greatest ways to get known in the technical communication community is to volunteer to help run the Phoenix Chapter. Lots of opportunities exist to help out, and when you do, you get to know technical communicators who often hear about employment opportunities from other volunteers before almost anyone else.

Chapter Job Bank for Job Seekers

The STC Phoenix Chapter maintains a job bank (that is, a list of local job openings) for job seekers. Each entry in the list is sent to us by area employers or agencies. Job leads will be posted to the Employment page of our Web site typically within a few days after they are received. They will be deleted from the site after 2 months or when we are notified that the job has been filled.

• Obtain our job listings in one of two ways:

1. Visit our job bank.
    
2. Receive job listing via e-mail (for people with e-mail access, but not internet access). To be added to the e-mail notification list to get any job listings as they are posted to our Web site, send your request to Michelle Parcell. The list names are suppressed to protect everyone's privacy.

• Take a look at the Phoenix Chapter's Insider Guide to view companies that hire technical communicators.

Chapter Job Bank for Employers

To add a job opening to the job bank, e-mail Michelle Parcell with the information described below. Your job will be posted on our Web site and sent to our e-mail list within a week of receipt. Note: STC does not charge to post job openings.

Please include

• The company or agency name
• Job title
• Direct or agency
• Permanent or contract
• Location of work
• Job description, skills, experience, and education
• Contact information (name, complete address, phone number, fax, and/or email address)
• Date submitted
• How you heard about the STC job bank

Society Job Bank

At the Society level, STC provides a self-service job leads database for STC job seekers.

Technical Writers to the Rescue

If you are an employer in the Phoenix area looking for contractors or consultants in the technical communications field, you may want to check out our Local Consultant Links page.

Job Hunting on the WWW

In your job search, you may want to check out some of the online resources. The Employment page has a list to assist you.

Annual Conference

While attending the 53rd Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 7-10, check out the employment booth. The booth will be located in Bally's Event Center, the area where registration, vendors, and awards are located.

A map of the vendor area with the employment booth shown at the top is available on the Society's conference site. A link to a more detailed gif map is also available. 

Don't forget to bring your résumé and business cards.