In [thread=314338]this[/thread], I ask about peoples’ experiences in being a professional writer, and many of the responses were from folks who did technical writing as a pay job. I’m sure there are more of you out there, so tell me about your job. In particular:
[ul][li]How long have you been doing it?[/li][li]Are you a company slave or a freelancer/contractor?[/li][li]Do you like it? Why?[/li][li]What qualifications did you have/were required?[/li][li]What software do you or are you required to use?[/li][li]If you’re a job shopper or a freelancer, how do you find work/clients?[/li][li]Do you write outside of work, or does the job suck the creativity out of you?[/li][li]Any other comments or declarations of war you wish to make?[/ul] [/li]
Stranger
I participated in the other thread, but figure it won’t kill anyone if I post in this one too…
How long have you been doing it?
It’ll be 7 years in July.
Are you a company slave or a freelancer/contractor?
I work for a company; I’ve never done freelance or contract work.
Do you like it? Why?
I do like it. I get to write, which I’ve always enjoyed and had a knack for, but I don’t have to come up with my own ideas – which I’ve always been horrible at.
Also, I like that I get to do a little bit of everything: I work for a software company (I’m one of four full-time writers on staff), so primarily I write user manuals and installation guides, but I also support our Corporate Communications division by editing white papers and press releases, I help our Bids & Proposals manager by proofreading proposals, and I support Human Resources by writing or editing job requisitions, annual reports, etc.
I get a bit of a kick out of the process, as well: I like sitting down to a software application I’ve never seen before, then – after a little while – being able to explain it to someone else as though I’d written the thing myself. I enjoy the learning/teaching cycle.
What qualifications did you have/were required?
I never knew there were such creatures as “technical writers” until I became one: when I got my first tech writing job all I had was a B.A. in Communications, the recommendation of one of the company’s employees (who I’d met elsewhere while doing temp work), and a wide-ranging, 5-year work history. Basically, I got lucky.
At my current job we recently hired a technical writer, and we looked for someone with a bachelor’s degree in a related field and 2-3 years of experience.
What software do you or are you required to use?
The entire Microsoft Office suite is de rigueur. I also use several Adobe products, including FrameMaker, InDesign, and Acrobat. For screen shots, I use SnagIt. Companywide, we use version control software called CVS and bug tracking software called TestTrack. Before starting my current job, the only one of the above that I’d used was Microsoft Office.
The only operating system (OS) I needed to know before taking the job was Microsoft Windows, and that’s the OS on both my dekstop and laptop computers, but I’m now also able to perform basic tasks on both the Solaris and Macintosh OSs. One of my projects has just started to support Linux, so I’ll be learning that as well. But unless you work for a software company, you probably only need to know Windows.
Do you write outside of work, or does the job suck the creativity out of you?
My job isn’t very creative. There is some room for expression, but mostly I work with templates and company- or government-dictated formats.
I do some writing outside of work, but these days it’s mostly for school.
Any other comments or declarations of war you wish to make?
Nah. But I’m always happy to answer specific questions.
I like Tech Writing - I thrive on it. I work for a major aerospace corporation & have been writing aircraft tech manuals for about 8 years now. I have no degree. As in my case (I was an aircraft technician for many years), background knowledge is often more useful than the techniques of writing. (Tech writing jobs can be gotten without a colledge education).
My job consists of getting blueprints, engineering specs and general engineering inputs & translating them into finished, easy to use documents or procedures.
One should have strong skills in communication.
**Misnomer ** is correct in that Tech Writing eliminates the creative aspect of writing. Documents are written to pre-determined standards and styles to promote consistency within publications. A good tech manual looks as if it has been entirely written by one person (though it often is the work of many).
Yes MS Office is a must - Standardized General Markup Language (SGML) is the main type media we use to compose tech manuals. The use SGML for Tech Manuals is very common. (Don’t let it scare you - It’s not all that bad - In fact it’s quite cool what can be done with documents written in markup language).
Most important is being able to utilize databases, documents and available technology to obtain technically accurate data on the subject that you are writing about.
Just my 2 cents worth - It’s well worth investigating . . .
One of the major organizations for tech writing professionals is the Society for Technical Communication–their web site may have some basic useful info.
I’m primarily a software engineer, but have worked as a tech writer more than once. At times it was part of my job function (write the manual for the code I was working on) and I also spent a couple years as a contract text book writer.
How long have you been doing it?
Did it a couple years on a contract basis (mostly part time, sometimes full time) and like I said above, as part of several of my jobs. Programmers who can write clear English are few and far between.
Are you a company slave or a freelancer/contractor?
Have been both.
Do you like it? Why?
Textbook writing was a hoot at times - especially when I got to research and write about interesting things. Software manuals are dead boring. I will never miss writing stuff like “Click the OK button to close the dialog. Click “File” then click “Open.” When the Open File dialog appears, click the Browse button.” bleah bleah bleah.
What qualifications did you have/were required?
An understanding of computer and software, and the ability to write English in a clear and easy to read fashion.
What software do you or are you required to use?
Mostly MS Word, but on occasion some desktop publishing packages like Quark.
If you’re a job shopper or a freelancer, how do you find work/clients?
I was never any good at this. If I was, I’d probably still be doing it. I notice that Craigslist has some writing gigs, though. If I didn’t have a full time job I’d probably be going after some of those.
Do you write outside of work, or does the job suck the creativity out of you?
Writing software manuals is about as creative as tying your shoes, so no, it didn’t suck the creativity out of me. Neither did the textbook gig, although that was a bit more creative.
Any other comments or declarations of war you wish to make?
Tech writing isn’t particularly creative. It’s boring at times. Given the choice between programming and writing software manuals, programming is more creative, more of a challenge, and more fun.
What is the payscale for technical writing? I might like to make a lateral move within my company, since I already do a LOT of technical writing for each project I work on, and enjoy it quite a bit. However, I get paid (with total compensation) in the low-six-figures for what I do now, and I’m afraid technical writing wouldn’t draw anywhere near that salary.
Absolutely; this is something I forgot to mention, but it’s crucial. Having some basic editing skills will serve you well, too.
Also, good people skills – being able to get along with, and get information from, just about anyone – are valuable. I interact with so many different kinds of people, of various backgrounds with various expectations: customers (including, because of the work my company does, some military officers), project managers, software developers, software testers, human resources and public relations managers, other writers, senior managers in my own company (up to and including the CEO), etc. So far I have only encountered one person who I had significant problems getting along with, but we manage to be cordial and professional with each other – and she even provided a positive comment on my most recent performance review. It helps that I don’t work with her on anything approaching a regular basis.
I belong to STC: their site contains information about the organization itself, its publications, how to join, when the next conference is, etc. It does not contain information about the field of technical writing, or any of the fields that might fall under the “technical communication” umbrella.
Well, total compensation numbers are nearly impossible to find: going just on salary, though, I think you can expect to make between $40-80k (depending on experience, location, etc.) I don’t have my STC web site login information handy, so I can’t look up their salary survey information for my cite at the moment, but I think that salaries any higher than $80k are extremely few and far between. I have 7 years of experience, a college degree, and I work in the D.C. area: my salary is around $60k, and my total compensation package was recently valued at around $80k.
If you’re looking to move within your company you might not have to take a significant pay cut, but you should be sure that you want to stay with them forever because it may price you out of the tech writing field anywhere else.
**How long? ** Five years ago I started as a technical editor, eased into the writing side in the past three years. Are you a company slave? Yep
**Do you like it? Why? ** Sometimes. Technical writing is probably 35% of my job, and it’s the part I find most challenging and therefore most enjoyable. I like that it exercises my writing skills in an otherwise fairly technical workplace. What qualifications did you have/were required? I have a BA, a 4 year degree is required but they are flexible about the field. The main requirement is that you’re a capable writer with decent grammar and usage skills, computer literate, and well-versed in our SOPs and USP and ISO certifications that relate to our work. The specialized stuff I obviously didn’t learn until after I was working there.
**What software? ** We use Word for our reports, Excel for various spreadsheets, we have a tracking system in Access, and a special program that houses a bunch of internal data about our test articles and reports.
**How do you find work/clients? ** I’ve never freelanced
**Do you write outside of work? ** Less than I used to, certainly, but I think that has more to do with full time work, two kids, house, blah blah, and very little to do with my actual job duties.
Are you a company slave or a freelancer/contractor?
Slave. Cube prisoner. Drone. But I can’t say that’s typical of every company. The management of the company was really bizarre, and the effects trickled down.
Do you like it? Why?
I did like it. All of that nifty new software and hardware to figure out. We’d also participate in the user interface design: editing dialog boxes, suggesting changes to improve usability. The engineers took our usability input very seriously; after all, we would be the first non-engineer people to try out a new product and therefore an indicator of how the “average” person would connect with the software (or not). We’d also find bugs and hardware/software issues that they’d miss.
It also helped me write more good. That carried over to things like verbal instructions. It’s a lot easier now for me to explain something to someone (say, to give directions on how to get somewhere), because the step-by-step-explain-clearly-avoid-any-ambiguity thing has become second nature.
What qualifications did you have/were required?
This company wasn’t worried about experience. They just wanted you to have a degree. I learned on the job and faster than I could have imagined.
What software do you or are you required to use?
Mainly FrameMaker. Also Illustrator, Photoshop, MS Office, various online help creation apps (we were always switching), Acrobat. Because our field was video editing, we also had to learn Adobe Premiere, and as the only writer for our Mac product, I learned Final Cut Pro.
If you’re a job shopper or a freelancer, how do you find work/clients?
Not applicable.
Do you write outside of work, or does the job suck the creativity out of you?
I didn’t, but I don’t think it was because of work. Tech writing is pretty bland stuff, but there were times when we could get creative. For me, creativity includes thinking up ways to improve workflow without upsetting or disrupting it by implementing radically different procedures, and I did quite a bit of that.
Any other comments or declarations of war you wish to make?
I could definitely do it again. Just not at that company. In spite of a pretty toxic environment (constant rumors of layoffs*, management never being honest with us, a never-ending salary freeze), I did learn a lot that I’m able to apply to my daily life. Sometimes I surprise myself when the tech writer in me comes out.
“It’s going to be this Friday, and 80 people!” “No, I heard next Friday, 120, but mainly in management and marketing, not engineering.” “No way, they’re cutting in engineering. My friend who works in the President’s office told me.” Shit like that. You never knew when it was going to happen, except that they’d always do it on a Friday morning. I never got canned.
Oh, okay. I haven’t really looked at the STC site in years (since I always thought it was kinda lame), so I just gave a pointer to it in the hopes that they’d have some useful information, since they’re the main organization for tech writing practitioners. I was always more fond of the IPCC and SIGDOC groups, but I don’t think they’d have much info for someone looking to break into the field.
My degrees are in tech writing, but I haven’t actually done a whole lot of writing that’s seen print in customer-facing documents. I’m currently doing usability, and in addition to that and writing, I’ve also done program management and interaction design. (I figure, why be a writer and spend my time documenting bad interfaces when I could just go ahead and design the bad interfaces?)
Anyhoo, here’s my take on the list-o-questions:
How long have you been doing it?
As noted above, I’ve done relatively little “pure” tech writing that customers ended up seeing, but I’ve worked in the general area for a dozen years or so. I still do a lot of writing, but it’s internal reports and specs.
Are you a company slave or a freelancer/contractor?
I’ve been both a company slave and a contractor (through a consulting firm, never a freelancer).
Do you like it? Why?
Yep, I like it. I like the process of taking some nebulous idea and working it into a useful pattern.
I also like to learn about technology and processes without having to get too deep into it, and this is an opportunity for that.
What qualifications did you have/were required?
Were required: It varies a lot depending on the organization and position.
Have: B.S. in tech writing, with minors in CS and experimental psych; M.S. in tech writing. I also have a number of published academic papers, which people tend to be impressed about when they see my resume.
What software do you or are you required to use?
At IBM, I used BookMaster (had to learn a lot about GML and a little about Script)
At my current company, I used MS Word with a bunch of extensions.
I personally am not too fond of Word when working with large or complex documents; I’d prefer something along the lines of FrameMaker.
If you’re a job shopper or a freelancer, how do you find work/clients?
n/a. But when looking for contract positions, I’d look on places like Monster.
Do you write outside of work
No, not really. I don’t think of myself as a “writer”. I’m currently pondering whether I should put together a paper for a conference, though.
or does the job suck the creativity out of you?
Bear in mind that (at least with what I do) there’s actually a lot of creativity involved on the job–it’s just not what you think of in terms of “creative writing”.
Any other comments or declarations of war you wish to make?
I would highly recommend getting at least a certificate in tech writing. There are a lot of people who get paid to do tech writing but are really bad writers (there have been a couple of writers to whom I had to introduce the concept of the “outline”). Anything you can do to improve your skillset will be a bonus–remember that tech writing is a professional craft, so even though you already “know how to write”, there’s a set of skills that you need to pick up and consciously use.
I got an M.S. in Technical Communication and survived 3 tedious months as an entry level technical writer at a small, highly dysfunctional company. I once spent an entire day proofing documents so that all lists had serial commas before the and (peanut butter, jelly, and bread). The next day I was told the powers that be had changed their mind, and to change all of them back (peanut butter, jelly and bread).
I have found the skills I learned in school to be generally useful, but all in all I need more human interaction and variety in my day. I changed fields to HR after that job and really have never looked back, in spite of 6 long years earning that Master’s degree while working part-tiime.
So if I were to give you some advice, it would be to try working in a similar job before committing too heavily to the field.
