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I think you're confusing the internal motivations that we bring to the
job, which is what Mariana first asked about; and our potential
employers' motivations for hiring tech writers and creating
documentation, which is a whole different beast.
You're absolutely right that our own value systems are not enough when
it comes to persuading employers of the value of tech comm. Heck, I
might place some intrinsic value on making scale model houses entirely
out of dried pasta, but I am not likely to find someone willing to pay
me to do it for a living.*
My motivation IS good enough for me, just as yours must be good enough
for you, and Mariana's for her, etc. There've been lots of recent and
recurring threads on employer motivations for investing in documentation
and "selling your value." Two different things (though I suppose they
intersect here and there).
Lisa
* For those with earnest hearts: No, I'm really not interested in
finding out how I could make a living making models out of pasta. :-)
It's just an example.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-53104 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-53104 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com] On Behalf Of Erika
Yanovich
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 7:06 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Motivation + career path
Motivation
==========
I noticed that many gave intrinsic explanations for the motivation
question, things like we feel good about learning the product, it
matters to us, etc. I'm not sure that's good enough. The minute
companies could sell products without docs (beacuse they are easy to
use), they will get rid of TCs. So far the status is that although only
a few use the docs, you need them to make a sell, but this will probably
change soon. To survive, we should move to write about more complex
things. It doesn't make sense to work without adding value.
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