In the Eyes of the Beholder

 In 2008, I started working as a sub-contractor for Prove IT.  Prove-IT was a company, which was primarily did Independent Verification and Validation for government agencies.  Basically, they would come in and examine software created by other contractors and make sure that the government got what it paid for.  They were starting to go into the Network branch of IT and they hired me as a Technical Writer to work temp to perm.  I was replacing the former writer, Ann, who had been promoted to Deputy Project Manager.  The job paid less than what I was used to making but the company was paid to consult and write Network related White Papers.  This was a field that I did not know a lot about.  The company had hired Network Engineers and a Computer Scientist to write the papers, but they needed a Technical Editor to prepare them for the government publication.  I enjoyed working for this small company and I thought that maybe, I could become a permanent employee there. 

In the private sector, the best way to get a job is to make a good impression.  One way is to prove your worth by saving the day.  You can’t plan to save the day, but, every once in a while, things happen…  I thought that I was going to work for this company because while I was working there I noticed that one of the white papers that I was editing had been plagiarized.  The information came verbatim from a textbook that was on the internet.  This was a big deal for various reasons.  First, Prove IT was paying these engineers a lot of money to write these White Papers for the government.  They had already paid them a portion of the money for draft delivery, because the previous writer had not caught it.  Second, Prove IT was going to deliver this plagiarized paper to the government which if discovered would have not only been very embarrassing but could cause them to lose their contract as well as future business.  But, unfortunately for me, it also made the Ann look bad.  And, Ann already had power issues and Sociopath tendencies, so, I was in trouble.  When it was time to make a decision on whether to hire me, the company opted to keep me as a contractor, indefinitely, until they found someone else.  So, I decided to resign.  And so, it was off to another job and another adventure.

#plagiarism

#Sociopath