April General Meeting Recap

by Ted Edwins, Webmaster

The topic of the April general meeting was "Life After Technical Communication." While this may seem to be an odd topic for our group, the discussion helped to focus our attention on the skills that we use in our jobs presently, and would help in transitioning to a new career area. A distinguished panel consisting of former and current Presidents of the chapter offered their views on this timely subject and answered questions from the curious audience.

The Panel

Deb Maskens began her career with IBM doing traditional technical writing. She later worked at Quarry Integrated Communications, where she and co-workers decided to redesign their jobs and become involved in user experience design. Deb transitioned into teaching and helped develop the curriculum for a technical writing certificate program at Fanshawe College that she later taught. She now is the president of an organization that funds cancer research and advocates on behalf of patients' access to cancer treatment.

Al Daigen started his career with the Canadian government doing French translations of scientific and technical documents. Following a move to Waterloo, he then pursued work as a freelance technical communicator. He now works as a freelance French translator.

Debbie Kerr landed a technical writing job during a co-op term, where she wrote manuals for government-operated health care facilities. She later worked for the LCBO where she documented business processes. Debbie now works at The Economical Insurance Group where her job title says she is a Customer Analyst who documents requirements, but she tries to go beyond to use more of her technical writing skills.

Choosing What To Do

If you choose to leave technical communication, then the problem becomes what to do next. Often, the advice of career search specialists is to survey the job market and determine where the "hot" industries are that are hiring. Al said that, while it is important to "follow the money" to these hot industries, it is more important to determine what you really like to do. He advised that you should work at what "turns your crank emotionally." In his experience, you are more likely to be successful when you are working at something you love. Work becomes fun.

Skills of Technical Communicators

The discussion then turned to the kinds of skills that technical communicators can apply to jobs in new career areas. Of course, the core skills would include organization and writing that are the backbone of communication. From there it is easy to branch out to presentations, training, and teaching. With time and experience, technical communicators can then move into supervisory and leadership roles. Sometimes people have trouble recognizing their own skills, so Debbie advised us to ask other people what they think we are good at.

Often, job ads have a laundry list of skills - some of which we may not yet have or have only used sporadically. Deb said not to worry about being an expert in each area. She suggested that volunteering, with a group such as the STC or within your company, is a strategy to develop proficiency in a skill you want to develop.

Networking

Deb said that the key to moving to other career areas is to remain outward focussed. Get out and network. This can directly lead to being offered other jobs. Become a member of professional organizations and attend their meetings. In addition to the STC, Deb has participated in Usability Professionals' Association and WritersUA events.

Freelancing

Deb said that freelancing is a viable alternative for technical communicators. The advantage of freelancing is that you can keep more of what you earn. Finding a knowledgeable accountant can help you tremendously in this area. From her own experience, she cautioned that it is vitally important to have the proper insurance. Coverage, such as health benefits, long-term disability, and life insurance can be expensive, but more than pays for itself should you develop a serious disease that can keep you from working.

The subject of money arose, as it often does. The audience wanted to know how much to charge as a freelancer. Deb answered that if you did not get any push back from a client on your price, then you weren't charging enough. In other words, always charge what the market will bear.

Future Work

The consensus of the group was that social media, such as Facebook, blogs, Wikis, and Twitter, could provide a rich area of future work for technical communicators. The opportunity exists to incorporate these media in your current employment or to demonstrate your own knowledge in work-related or personal interests. Collectively, these social media; technologies such as Flash, XML, and AJAX; and concepts that enable users to interact with and contribute to data presented on the web are known as Web 2.0. Ideally, Web 2.0 websites and applications can be accessed from any device that can connect to the internet. In the future, Web 3.0, or the semantic web, will use web agents to retrieve data, whether it is textual or another media. These web agents will monitor our Internet usage and access the data on our behalf.

About Ted Edwins

Ted Edwins is an independent consultant specializing in software documentation. He is a Past-President of the chapter. In his spare time he continues his futile quest to lower his golf handicap.