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Subject:Re: Coming from the Other Side From:PJ Rose <PJRose -at- EWORLD -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 12 Jan 1995 05:47:44 PST
I'm yet another who's made the crossover: after 20 years as a control systems
engineer, I've been successfully freelancing in tech writing for a year, now.
I had worked both the vendor (Measurex and smaller systems houses) and user
(Exxon and Aramco) sides of the street, and had done everything from
specification and startup to marketing and sales of process control systems.
Early in my career, I was recognized as "an engineer who could write," and
ended up writing a lot of stuff, in addition to my regular duties. After
spending 9 years working in Saudi Arabia, I returned last year determined to
"live where I wanted to live, instead of where I had to live." I wanted to go
into private practice as an engineering consultant, but couldn't legally call
myself an "engineer" until I passed the PE exam (which I took last October).
Anyway, I chose Maine as a place to live, and started to market my services
as a tech writer, to tide myself over until I got the PE certification.
Having been in the instrumentation and control business for so long, I know a
lot of other folks in the industry, so by May of last year I was working
pretty steadily by modem, fax, and phone. My major client is in
Massachussetts, and I travel down there on a regular basis.
The bottom line is that I love tech writing, and have now decided to stay in
that business even after I get my PE registration. Having a lot of hands-on
technical experience in the business has helped more than I can say; I get a
lot of work just because I understand what the engineers are talking about
based on my own engineering experience. I've been accepted by both the
engineers and the other tech writers as once of them. I feel pretty lucky.
PJ Rose
Technical Writer
pjrose -at- eworld -dot- com
pjrose -at- aol -dot- com
73511 -dot- 2163 -at- compuserve -dot- com
