I am treating myself to a barcardi-coke. Probably more then one.

I got my first (work-related) article published in a Dutch magazine about Oracle products. The article describes the success factors of implementing the packaged software solution Oracle Siebel CRM. It is written from my personal experience of 13 years of IT and it turned out pretty good. I changed jobs April 1st 2010 and my new employer, which is focused on the Dutch market wanted more exposure and asked me to write an article. I had never done this before, and frankly never had the desire to do so. I am not much of a reader, except for the countless pages of architecture and design documents, and the multitude of 300 words I read as a result of my commitment to this initiative.

Yesterday, I receive a copy of the article and filled with excitement I opened the pdf file. I quickly scanned the pages and was content that only a few changes were made to the layout. But then it struck me. They changed the title! How could they do this without consulting me. I am still pondering if they are entitled to do so without my approval. I was under the impression that they would sent me the version that they wanted to publish and politely ask for my approval. But they didn’t. It overshadowed my emotions of pride that I got my first article published. I felt like a little child who proudly showed his parents his achievement and they corrected it with the words “You’re doing it wrong!”. That feeling made me burst in laughter on the inside. What was I complaining about? I just got my first article published, and they only changed 5 out of the 1890 words.

Talking about putting things into perspective.

Originally posted here: http://300words.posterous.com/they-changed-the-title

Related Posts