RE: RE: The Lone Writer

Subject: RE: RE: The Lone Writer
From: "Peter Swisher" <PeteS -at- bmgi -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 11:18:20 -0700


I couldn't agree with Steven Brown and John Posada more. I would
basically add the continual job hunting line to John's e-mail. For that
matter, I pretty much agree with everyone else too.

In my new gig, I am also the solo tech writer. In a previous life, I
worked at a company that had about 7 tech writers on different teams.
Prior to that setup, there was a communications department. So, the
transition was from a comm. Department to team based writers to (you
guessed it) back to a departmental approach, but the tech writers were
leased out to various teams (at this point, I jumped ship and got into
product management) to 5 months later all the writers being laid off and
1 or 2 brought back as contractors. A couple years later, the PM
department was laid off too. The point is, nothing is guaranteed.

The company may have kept you on because they value your work, they may
also have kept you on b/c you are not paid a whole lot. It's probably a
combination of both. However, as others have said, keep your situation
in perspective. This is an excellent opportunity for you to define your
career. You are now a "lead" writer by title. A year or two from now,
you will be a Lead Writer by experience. The most important thing is
you have the opportunity to job hunt, while having a job.

The one mistake I am making right now, is I'm not producing enough stuff
yet. This is happening because I haven't been a tech writer in about 3
years and am relearning things like: when to write a ref doc vs a user's
guide, how to write online help, how to write a doc plan, and so forth
and the current documentation is a MESS. This list is invaluable in
that regard. Below are some archived posts that I've found to be very
useful. Good luck! I'm sure you will do very well.

- Pete

http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0207/techwhirl-0207-01161.html
http://www.dac.neu.edu/english/w.kraszewski/od/docplan.htm
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9710/techwhirl-9710-00074.html
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9910/techwhirl-9910-00712.html
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9803/techwhirl-9803-00692.html
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9803/techwhirl-9803-00693.html
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0004/techwhirl-0004-01035.html
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/9710/techwhirl-9710-00506.html



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