Keep up the good work.

Here it is a long four years after graduation and I’m a graduate student in an LIS program and I’ve discovered that I’m actually interested in technical writing. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get that certificate back in my undergrad days, but I’m fine with doing the work on my own so I can get my skill level up.

On the notion of blogging as “performative,” I had never thought of it that way before, but must admit that my extrovert nature does thrive on it. I love your comment about how the process of writing becomes a self-aware event, as we become conscious of how our audience will view what we have written.

All in all, I’m glad to have found your blog and plan to be a faithful reader as I begin this new direction that has taken me a few years to discover.

I was a career soldier, working in Army Intelligence. Contrary to popular novels and movies, an Intelligence Analyst has more in common with your average Technical Writer than with James Bond. I spent about 10 years in the field of Technical Writing before I even realized it existed. Taking bits of information gathered from various sources and compiling them into a coherent, informative report that someone will actually read is not unlike gathering information from SMEs and translating it into a helpful user manual.

While in the service, I was going to college part-time and trying to find a major. Since I was always told I had a gift for writing, I gravitated toward a degree in Communications. It was then that I took my first real course in Technical Writing and discovered that this was an actual career. The instructor was very enthusiastic and for his day job, owned a company whose main line of business was helping Architects get funding by translating their plans into proposals.

At the same time, the military was creeping into the Information Age, and I was given the task of creating an automated database for our myriad intelligence reports using the new (at the time) dBaseIV. I was given an office with a computer, the software, and a manual the size of a phone book that was obviously written by the developers. Suffice it to say the manual was worse than useless and I ended up teaching myself how to use the software. After completing the task, I reflected on how poorly written the manual was and set about writing my own. It was my first user manual, and my superiors were so impressed, I was given an award. It was then I realized that I could make a living at this.

When I retired from the Army, with a BS in Communications, I thought the corporate world would welcome me with open arms (how naive was I?). It took me six months to land a contract position with an agency – straight hourly rate, no benefits, no vacation, no sick days, and a year working at that job before I found an actual full-time job.

I lasted one year in that job and left one step ahead of a layoff, landing a better-paying job with a defense contractor and even got a signing bonus! (I thought only programmers and engineers got those.) I lasted there for almost five years and again escaped another layoff due to the company being bought by moving on two weeks before the “Monday Morning Massacre” where 14 of my friends and former co-workers got the axe. At least I got them to pay for my Master’s Degree.

I’ve been in my current job for over three years now. The pay is good, the benefits fantastic (1 for 1 401k match, stock options, telecommuting 4 days a week), but I have to say, the enthusiasm I once felt for Technical Writing has waned a great deal.

In my many Technical Writing jobs, I’ve done everything from prepare a complete documentation set and online help from scratch, to formatting documents written by SMEs. I’ve worked mostly in software and while the pay is still good, the days where I feel anything remotely resembling job satisfaction are few and far between. Maybe it’s the chaotic nature of software – never following a project plan, just in time releases, documentation thrown together at the last minute that never seems like it’s complete.

Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t complain. There are a lot of people with English or Communications degrees that are waiting tables, not to mention a lot of underpaid Tech Writers in my area.

All in all, I guess this is a good “day job” for someone who wants to be a writer.