| Author | Message | ||
     Mikej |
This being BadWeB, a site with an amazing breadth of user experiences, I figured someone here could probably help me with some understandings. Background:My current temp job is ending soon (got a buffer but still ending soon), and the local job market is non-responsive so far. Currently acting as a mechanical designer with CAD, but the primary program I'm using has fewer and fewer companies using it. I know other programs somewhat, I'm rusty but could get up to speed but companies want you fully up to speed yesterday (not tomorrow). Bottom line is I'm about dead in the water. Today: so with all that said I'm thinking of making a diagonal shift possibly into the Technical Writing field. I've done in-house assembly procedure writing before and have had some college level writing courses. I can't currently sit down and diagram a sentence, but seem to do okay putting words and concepts together when I put my mind to it. But I'm a little confused and it seems as though companies looking for Tech Writers are advertising for Desktop Publishers. One job posting said the company wanted applicants to be current with XML, Quark, Adobe suite, Indesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Frame Maker (my notes might have been for two positions). Where's the writing? Are current Tech Writers more along the lines of Desktop Publisher people, have the programs taken over the focus of the field where how you present the words have as much if not more perceived impression than the actual words used? No insult intended, but in past years the writers I've worked with were technicians with words, but that was when the software was more basic. In the CAD world there are Designers and there are CAD Jockeys, I am a bit of both where sometimes you just have to crank out a bunch of stuff so you grab the mouse and kick the workstation in the hind-quarters and charge headlong into the deadline with keyboard keys and plotting paper flying and othertimes you can get deep into the details and fine tune fit for design and manufacturability. I'm guessing that these days there has been some blending between "Publishing" and "writing" except for the marketing and advertising sides of business. If I put that together coherently enough, am I on track with my understanding? Maybe I should just throw caution to the wind, find a how to do it for dummies book, and try my hand at freelance copywriting. Or photography. Or boatbuilding. Anyway, anyone with some Technical Writing background care to comment? I suspect I'll be told to "get a Mac", but since I can't afford a full CAD program to home-learn a more employable CAD program I'm going to have a tough time to load up the full Adobe Suite (probably on a Mac). Thanks for any help or input. Maybe someday I can write a service manual (which, I suspect, isn't as exciting and interesting as it sounds). Oh yeah, and if you've got any input of salary ranges to expect it would be great. Hopefully it will pay better than unemployment, or maybe even better than McDonald's after training. | ||
| Sleez |
basically a tech writer is a technician who can write. i have written a number of manuals, never employed as a "tech writer", always as a field service technician or design engineer, or whatever my current title may have been. the key is to know the publishing software, i used pagemaker and a few others, being able to mix and match data from one to another is very helpful good luck, keep trying, you may succeed!! | ||
| Danger_dave |
I'm not tech - but I know it's a tough gig at the moment. Approach it as supplementary income maybe. I've been doing some writing as part of my biz stream for 10 years and have run a DTP studio for 20. This is the worst I have known it and I'm currently advertising for work. Never had to do that before. Google, or a smart PA with a Microsoft suite, can do out of the box what I used to get $5k for, 3 years ago. Cameras are point and shoot and google knows all. News media is laying off hundreds and there are lots of Journos looking for work - or will be soon. Or you could be the next Tolstoy. Just don't over commit I guess. (Message edited by danger_dave on July 07, 2010) | ||
| Greg_e |
They want all that crap because there are fewer and fewer actual user manuals being written. People seem to think that things like compiled help files will do the job, but they certainly do not work for me. An example is the CAD that I'm trying to learn from Siemens called Solid Edge (using the free 2D since it is hobby use only for me). It's all convoluted with no focus to the content and how it is represented. The thoughts start, and just when you get going on the real meat they go off to another place or make you click on a different link to get the meat out. These files are sometimes built with XML and HTML though I have a feeling that Microsoft has a nice utility to help you build these files. http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/produc ts/velocity/solidedge/free2d/index.shtml Having started to pull the help files apart and relink the graphics, this is going to take forever to try and make a coherent manual that I can print and refer back to when needed. Going to take a lot of rewriting too in order to put all the fragmented thoughts into a real workflow. Seems everyone thinks you should be fluent in Autocad and gear everything towards the differences between the two instead of focusing on real new users. As far as making a nice looking PDF that will print into a booklet, just make sure all your pictures are tagged into the same colorspace as the document so everything comes out the same at print time and let the printer do pleasing color on it since you aren't printing fine art photo books. You could do pretty much all of this in Open Office with sRGB images. The real page layout tools make certain parts of the image with text pages easier to deal with, especially if you need to draw arrows or other things like this. Also there is no real reason to get a different computer platform, all the Adobe stuff runs equally well on both Windows and Mac, just make sure you have a fast enough processor and enough RAM, the latest Adobe applications want way more than they probably need. | ||
| Doerman |
So you are looking for a different line of work because the tool you are using is declining in popularity? You were describing a CAD jockey vs a Designer. If you are a true designer, then no worries, you will find work in that field regardless of CAD system (hint: they all pretty much do the same things and have the same workflows to accomplish things). Point is: It is not the tool it is the ability to think and solve a problem If you want to become a techwriter, then the ability to understand workflow and express it in text is the key. A skilled designer can do that because he/she thought through tat in the first place. It is often discouraging to look at job ads and see all the tools listed that you are supposed to master. XML, HTML5, Desktop Publishing, the Adobe suit.... the list is literally perhaps 100 long. The same applies to a good Tech Writer as as to a Designer. Understand the processes and be able to articulate them. The tools can be learned quickly. By the way, your opening post illustrates that you can write. In searching for a new opportunity the key is your network. People you know that can get you an audience with the potential employer. Tap it and use it. These people can get you an audience and use it well by discussing your ability to think and explain a process and don't let the interviewer trip you up on details about the tools. The key in a change in you professional life is to have confidence in yourself to make that change. The rest will follow. | ||
| Slaughter |
At work, we have an entire heirarchy of folks who function as tech writers but their official title is "Material and Process" engineers. These folks work alongside those who are actually developing processes (welding, assembly, finishing, composite manufacturing, electronics) - and TRY to interpret and define things well enough to put it in writing (and images) so that they can then write up a functional document to be used to BUILD stuff. It's a tough job, requiring a decent understanding of the processes happening in front of them - keeping in mind the ability of the people who eventually will be actually DOING the work. Our Material and Process folks even refer to themselves as our "scribes." PM me, I can shoot you some job links. Times are very slow - we are just undergoing a 30% RIF but you never know. | ||
| Yooper71 |
I've been a tech writer for the last 16 years. In my eyes desktop publishing is a a part of being a technical writer. In my current position I do writing, desktop publishing and illustrating to complete the finished product. Most tech writing houses are structured where they have individual writers, illustrators and desktop publishers because it's hard to find someone who can do it all. The tech writing field also seems to be divided between software writing and hardware. Product knowledge and understanding is key to a good writer. Software packages can be learned. | ||
| Mikej |
Doerman, Most of the local firms won't even consider an applicant if they are not fully up to speed and have current working experience with the CAD system the company is using. They do not seem to care if you can design or not if you can not clear their first hurdle. I've got a bunch of years using I-DEAS and have had a week-long class on Pro-E, but because I'm not currently using Pro-E and don't have 1-3 years of active full time use with Pro-E I can't even get considered for a position. A real bummer, but if the door is barred then I have to find a different door in or a different venue to pursue. Slaughter, Email will be on the way later this morning, thanks. All, Thanks for the input. All I can do is adapt and persevere and keep trying, and if that don't work then I'll try something else. Such is life. I am on Linkedin and have made contact with folks I know and some I've worked with. Hopefully that will begin to help as well once I've got it filled out. | ||
| Road_thing |
Mikej--call Bomber. He's a tech writer. rt | ||
| Doerman |
I-DEAS!! I worked for SDRC for 15 years back when..Imagine that! Monster.com and careebuilder.com has changed the job search approach forever. The two sites have become so large that it is impossible for an applicant to be seen and an employer to find someone. Then they put in search tools for the employer. Set your criteria and winnow it down to a few resumes. This yields mixed results for employers and makes it very difficult for applicants. I heard a statistics a few years back that more than 65% of those landing a job do so through their personal and extended network. So start making a list of people you know and a letter writing campaign. You'd be amazed at how willing people are to help. Just like the responses you have gotten here on BadWeB. (Message edited by doerman on July 07, 2010) | ||
| Greg_e |
I thought of one more option... If you think you want to be a tech. writer for an application, pick one and learn it, then write a book on it and self publish through Lulu or Amazon. Amazon has the advantage of much wider marketing but the payout is not as good. Pick something that isn't flooded with books already (do we really need yet another book on Autocad???) so that there is a need. Picking something that you sort of know about is a natural choice so something CAD related. I'll again point to the Solid Edge application, there is literally nothing out there. Since they have the free version there are more than a few people that might want a book to help them learn the software (I know I do). If you make something decent for the free version, they might just hire you to do something for the 3D paid version (strange things do sometimes happen). For the self publishing the only real hurdle you would have to over come is permission to take screen captures of the software. Might be a gray area about who really owns the graphics displayed on the screen once they are grabbed and processed for a book, but worth checking with the manufacturer. You'll need an image editor at the very least, something to cut out sections, enhance sections, re-size sections, and add markup to those images. You can probably find half a dozen decent free applications like Gimp to do this. You'll of course need a word processor and better if it spits out a PDF so Open Office would be recommended. Make sure the book is in COLOR! Nothing is worse in this day and age than screen captures printed in black/white. They only place this has any value is on the Kindle since it only has black on white. While you are creating this book, make sure to think about alternative devices like the Kindle, you might need to process the images for a black/white display to optimize for them, but the process is pretty straight forward to reformat the document and if you publish through Amazon I'm sure they would help you to get it done correctly. Just a few more thoughts on the issue. (Message edited by Greg_E on July 07, 2010) | ||
| Mikej |
Yep, a small world indeed (and Indeed.com is in fact a job search engine). RT, I'll give him a call tonight. I heard he left one company I was looking at. I'll probably end up getting a Triumph though if I do call him. And it'll probably have Lucas electrics.  Re: writing a book: I am planning on visiting a local nautical magazine publisher and seeing if I can get a side job or two on spec, just looking to get a toe over the threshold. | ||
| Road_thing |
Know what you mean, Mike, I was up there a couple of weeks ago and his SCU let me ride her Bonneville. Now I'm looking at the new Scramblers with lust in my checkbook. rt | ||
| Reg_kittrelle |
Generally, the smaller the company the more encompassing the tech writer job description becomes. Large companies have also seen the wisdom of hiring tech writers with publishing (print & web) skills. As always, the more you know, the better off you'll be. | ||
| Mikej |
Yep, I'm always willing to learn, especially if it is something I want and/or need to learn. Keeps the mind alive. |
