President’s Message: You'd think I would learn

by Debbie Kerr, President

The purpose of this heading was more to get your attention than to make you think that your president is a few pages short of a manual. I may not always be the brightest bulb in the room, but I can still shine (insert grin here).

What I really want to say is that one of the best things about the Technical Communication field is the ability and the need to learn. Before you can describe something technical to a new user, you have to learn about it yourself. If you are already familiar with it, the next step is for you is to understand the audience and how to adjust your writing to meet that audience's needs. With the constant change in tools and trends, it is an ongoing battle to stay on top of ever emerging technologies. For example, help systems have evolved over the years, and just when you think you have it down to a fine art, another format comes along that is even better. While some people are worried about staying ahead of the Joneses, technical communicators are often worried about staying ahead of the technology.

For every general meeting that I attend, I always learn something new. It doesn't matter that I have been in the industry for over 20 years, there are such a variety of opportunities in our field that no one person can know everything. The other thing is that you can become stagnant in your job. Sometimes you have done the same thing for years, and you come to think of it as the only way to do it. Someone new comes on the scene or you watch someone else's presentation, and suddenly a light goes off and you wonder where you have been. Changes and new directions in your field have left you behind.

These are all good reasons to step outside the box. When you see a general meeting or seminar description, don't first ask yourself whether it applies to your current job. If it does, then it makes your decision to attend that much easier. However, if the topic is outside your current role, you may tell yourself that it doesn't apply to you. Unfortunately that may be short-sighted because you are walking away from a learning opportunity. No chance to learn is ever a waste of time.

The problem is that what may not apply to you now may be one of your most valuable assets in the future. If you don't continue to learn, how can you bring fresh ideas back to your company? What if you want to apply to another company or take on a new contract? When it is between you and another candidate, the deciding factor could be the last opportunity you took to learn something new. Can you afford to miss the chance to learn about new approaches and/or techniques?

In addition to general meetings and seminars, there is always the opportunity to learn at our networking meetings, like our upcoming meeting in April. You also learn a lot about yourself, when you work on the council for the Southwestern Ontario chapter. If you have ever worked for a small company, you know what it is like to wear a variety of hats. There are a wide variety of tasks that we tackle as a council, so you get to learn a lot of things. You also get a fresh perspective on the STC. Being a member is not the same as being on the council. When you are a member, you have to wait for others to make things happen. If you are on council, you get to make things happen.

Volunteering on the council also increases your visibility, just like writing an article for our newsletter. I recently heard from someone who wrote articles for our newsletter and, when a potential employer was looking for someone with this person's skill set, the employer found the person through an article she had written many years ago. You just never know when one thing can lead to something you never expected.

Say yes to a learning experience: a general meeting, a seminar, a place on council, and a newsletter article. You never know where the path will lead.

About Debbie Kerr

In the 20 years that Debbie has been writing documentation, she has worked in a variety of industries: government, retail, software, and insurance. She is currently employed at The Economical Insurance Group in Waterloo, where she has stepped out of her traditional role of writing user guides and help files, and now writes a variety of specifications.

Debbie has been a member of the STC since 1994 and has been a council member for many years. For the third year in a row, Debbie has bravely taken on the role of Chapter President.