I read the original question and asked myself, “Are we dealing here with curable career apathy or incurable career apathy?”

I would be asking Jayant how long s/he had been in the field, the industries in which s/he had worked as a technical writer and editor, and the reasons for entering the field in the first place. Was it a conscious, carefully strategized decision? Did s/he fall into the field (as so many do)? Was it most readily obtainable means of making a decent living wage while doing something that fell under the broad category of “writing and editing”? How persistently does s/he feel this lack of enthusiasm? How deep is the dissatisfaction? So deep that s/he dreads going to work every day?

Curable career apathy — which lies somewhere between boredom and fatigue — can be resolved by writing more (e.g., blogging), reading more, attending STC events, attending other techcomm events, volunteering with a techcomm organization, hanging out with other tech writers. It can be resolved by changing deliverable formats, changing the approach used in deliverables, finding other ways to ride the dragon at work (see Julia Cameron’s book). You might have to go as far as changing employers or changing industries. You can do volunteer work in completely unrelated arenas, reignite the creative spark, bring back to the workplace what you’ve learned and experimented with in the volunteer work (inspiring your co-workers in the process).

Incurable career apathy occurs when person and career, aspirations and reality, are severely mismatched — when a person has been doing the round-peg-in-square-hole thing for far too long. When career decisions have been based solely on paycheck, and when said paycheck has persistently trumped one’s most heartfelt aspirations for years at a stretch. With all due respect to the STC (of which I am an active, vocal, and supportive member for more than a decade), attending STC or other techcomm events is not going to fix this kind of career apathy. This is where some serious personal and professional re-evaluation has to be done, potentially with coaches (such as Steve Pavlina or Curt Rosengren).

If Jayant is still following this post, I’m curious to know what thoughts are running through her/his head.

For some years, techwriting was just work and every new customer a possible burden…now my motivation is much better again