I have to agree with Sue Heim. Sometimes I feel a little dissatisfied
at work but I feed my writing and other passions away from work. I
believe I am good at technical writing, but it is not my entire life. I
also enjoy editing my wife's manuscripts and I enjoy skydiving. If my
whole life revolved around developing a help system... well, I would
feel like I was short changing myself.
I look at it this way. If it weren't for my career as a technical
writer, I wouldn't be able to afford my other hobbies.
Thanks!
Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon, Inc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2010 16:56:08 -0800
From: Sue Heim <sue.h...@gmail.com>
To: raj nair <raj_gree...@hotmail.com>
Cc: tcp@techcommpros.com
Subject: Re: [TCP] Is technical writing worth the hype and pain?
Message-ID:
<7163c29d1001031656r49690649ta12f65365a34c...@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
I'm a little late to the party but... I firmly believe that you get what
you
pay for. And that goes for the career, too. If you walk around with a
chip
on your shoulder, people will respond that way.
I *will* say that it's been years and years since I've worked in a
company
where what I do was not valued. I'm a very integral part of the teams
that
make up our software development group, and even outside the software
group.
Many of the other groups ask me for information, just as I do them. I
rarely
if ever feel as if I'm the least common denominator. In fact, more
often, I
know more of the overall picture than many others, since I'm a bit of a
hub
with QA, Dev, PM, FE, and so on.
I also never feel as if the fact that I am not a programmer is a
detriment.
I'm a professional in my own chosen field, and I'm well respected within
my
organization. I would suggest that you work on gaining the respect of
others, rather than pulling the "woe is me" thing.
Finally, I consider what I do as a writer and online help author as a
career. This is NOT just a job. This is something I love to do and just
so
happens to be something I'm good at. If you consider being a technical
writer as just a job, maybe you are in the wrong career? (Sorry if this
is
blunt, but really, if you aren't getting the respect you need, maybe
it's
something that you need to change?)
...sue
On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 10:27 PM, raj nair <raj_gree...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
> At times, I wonder why technical writers are the least common
denominators
> in a software company. For example, if I submit a document for review,
> people schedule it for the last few hours of a business day. This
amply
> explains the 'importance' given to that task. Moreover, I have to work
with
> arrogant developers, testers, SMEs, and managers, who don't care a
damn
> about the information needs of technical writers. There is also an
absurd
> level of "technical apartheid" that at times gives a really wretched
> feeling. Since a majority of the technical writers have no programming
> background or releavant domain knowledge, people find it very easy to
> dismiss them as irrelevant irritants. Ultimately, the conclusion that
I can
> arrive at is that this is a ridiculous and thankless job. Do you
agree?
>
>
>
> Raj
>
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End of TCP Digest, Vol 40, Issue 1
**********************************
______________________________________________
ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or HTML and
publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. Download Free Trial.
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