True. I’m glad I’m able to make a living as a TW, but sometimes I have to fight the urge to gouge my eyes out with a stick.

2. Technical writing stifles your creativity.

True. I have a pretty popular mommy/humor blog and you can always tell when I’m working on a tight TW deadline because all of a sudden my blog becomes a dead zone of recycled posts. I can’t be creative AND productive at tech writing. It’s one or the other. Maybe it’s just me, but TW is the opposite of creative. It’s mechanical, methodical, and detailed. It can be interesting and engrossing, but it’s not creative.

3. You do a lot of writing as a technical writer.

Yeah. Along with other stuff. (Specific, aren’t I?)

4. You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication.

More or less true.

5. Technical writers are second-class citizens in IT departments.

I think this is true until you prove you’re not an idiot. It’s true that engineers will always acknowledge their brilliance before your own, but a nicely turned out ERD does a lot to convince people you know how to tie your shoes. That and a sense of humor. Typically by the end of the engagement, I’ve got them eating out of my hand ;>

6. Technical writers feel as if they’ve sold out.

No way. I don’t get that at all. We all have to have jobs, don’t we? What an odd supposition.

7. You can easily support a family with other writing careers outside of technical writing.

If you’re lucky, maybe. You can charge a LOT more per hour as a tech writer. Unless you make it huge as a national market author or as a screenwriter in Hollywood, tech writing is by far the most lucrative writing career.

8. You have to know a lot of tools to break into technical communication.

Not to break in. You have to know the tools required for the job. Sometimes not even that. Most of them are pretty easy to figure out with a couple of hours of practice. There have been plenty of occasions where I’ve just said I knew the tool. The HR people have no idea. The engineers usually don’t know the TW tools. Within a day I’m up to speed.

9. Technical writers are introverted, isolated, boring geeks.

No way.

10. Because IT technologies change so frequently, you have to spend large amounts of your spare time just keeping up with what’s new.

Nah.

Fascinating comments on this post.

Sues last blog post..Ghetto Pinata, Take Two

After a 15-month contracting stint at another company, I took a year of family leave, and am now looking to get back to work FT. I’ve seen plenty of job listings for tech writers, but in companies over an hour away. Since I’m not willing to take on a commute of an hour+ each way at this time, and am unable to relocate (for several reasons), I’m still an unemployed tech writer.

Sometimes true, sometimes false. It depends on both the industry you work in, and what products you write for. If you write manuals for refrigerators for example, how often are there new features to document, complex things to learn and communicate, etc? On the other hand, if you document software you’re always learning something new as they are always adding a new feature, fixing a bug, or doing something you have to document. Then again, it all depends on what you consider “boring.”

2. Technical writing stifles your creativity.

False. Yes, there are only so many ways you can be creative with “click this, select that,” but that’s not all there is to technical writing. Knowing your audience, deciding what to include in your manual or help, and structuring it so somebody will actually read it takes a lot of creativity. On the other hand, if you got into this field to write long, flowery prose, you are in the wrong business.

3. You do a lot of writing as a technical writer.

False. Most writers I know (myself included), spend about 10 percent of their time actually writing. The other 90 percent is usually spent attending meetings, reviewing design documents, corporate training, attending meetings, installing software updates, attending meetings, answering emails, attending meetings…

4. You need a job in technical communication to get a job in technical communication.

True. Unless you know somebody and they get you a job, or you are a Senior and ready to take an internship, the few technical writing jobs that are available are going to go to those who have an established track record and – more often than not, experience with whatever tool that particular company uses for documentation (Frame, Word, QuarkExpress, etc.).

5. Technical writers are second-class citizens in IT departments.

True. To quote an article I read some months ago, “Zero recognition and status, and your position on the totem pole is somewhere a fraction above the test team – ‘the poor bloody infantry’ of I.T.”

No matter how much BS they give you about demanding respect, etc., at the same time every other artcle about getting information from SMEs involves bribing them with chocolates or cookies or something to get them to do their jobs. That should tell you all you need to know about how much respect a TW gets.

6. Technical writers feel as if they’ve sold out.

Sometimes true, sometimes false. Unless you’re doing your “dream job” everyone who works for a living has “sold out” on some level. However, I actually work with a woman who really loves being a Technical Writer to the point of being passionate about it.

7. You can easily support a family with other writing careers outside of technical writing.

Sometimes true, sometimes false. With 25 years in this business and a Master’s in IT, I make a good salary for what I do. I also commute an hour each way. The TW jobs in the area where I live could support a family – if you wanted to live in a trailer and drive a 1994 Chevy Cavalier. I know that software and medical writers make the most money. I’m not sure if you could even get any of the other jobs mentioned above.

8. You have to know a lot of tools to break into technical communication.

True – for the most part. From what I’ve experienced, the more tools you know, the better your chances of landing a job. Most job ads list tools in their requirements and if you don’t have them, you’re likely to be screened out of a particular job.

9. Technical writers are introverted, isolated, boring geeks.

Sometimes true, sometimes false. I know a lot of writers who fit this description. I also know a lot of writers who are gregarious, energetic, social butterflies. The description in the article is closer to most of the engineers I work with.

10. Because IT technologies change so frequently, you have to spend large amounts of your spare time just keeping up with what’s new.

Sometimes true, sometimes false. One company I worked for didn’t even have online documentation and wasn’t planning on implementing it anytime soon. We did all of our manuals in Word, converted them to PDF, and sent them to a printer. For that particular job (writing manuals about proprietary hardware and software for a niche market) there wasn’t much technology to keep up with. Other jobs, I’ve felt behind the power curve even with a Master’s in IT.

Here’s one you could add:

11. Job insecurity. When a company needs to lower the head-count, it’s not their engineering or sales forces that get cut. It tends to be more peripheral roles like the technical writers, the test team, and maybe support person or two. Long term prospects for Technical Writers in I.T. are frightening, unless you’re happy to relocate to India or elsewhere in the developing world. True or False?

So all in all, I’d say about 50-50. But as previous posters pointed out, a lot of these stereotypes could apply to many people in many fields – especially the “sold out” and “IT geek” ones.