My Comments on “Best Careers 2011: Technical Writer – US News and World Report”
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Best Careers 2011: Technical Writer – US News and World Report.
It doesn’t amaze me that technical writer is listed in the top 50 careers. Technical writer appeared as a top 50 career in 2006 and 2009 in CNN Money. Each year there’s a lot of controversy about the description, but this year, some things are especially intriguing.
US News and World Report says as a technical writer, “you’d work with computers and electronic publishing software, including graphic design, page layout, and multimedia software.” The writer then says,
Future employment for technical writers looks bright, especially for those with strong Web and multimedia skills, according to estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Compare the emphasis on web, graphic design, and multimedia skills with trends about structured authoring, XML/DITA, content re-use, and single sourcing, which aren’t mentioned. Why the discrepancy? Internal to the tech comm field, you might think the main trends are the latter. External, it’s the former.
There’s also no mention of wikis, community, content curation, or user-generated content, even though “Curator” (as in museum curator) is one of the other top jobs in the “Creative and Service” grouping.
Let’s stop and examine that “Creative and Service” grouping for a minute. The article says,
Our picks in the creative and service category this year:
• Curator
If there were ever a what-the-heck moment, here it is. Why are creative and service jobs lumped together? Ask someone what a pilot, curator, heating/AC technician, translator, and technical writer have in common, and I guarantee that you’ll stump the person.
Here’s another interesting idea. The article about the grouping begins,
Not everyone wants to work behind a desk. Lucky, then, that some of the best opportunities don’t require you to sit in the office all day.
Funny, I find that this statement defines the opposite of my job. The less I move, the more productive I am.
Another interesting section of the article addresses the stress factor. In a previous CNN best careers article, technical writing was named one of the top 5 least stressful jobs in the US. Now we read,
Stress level: Moderate to high. Expect to work early mornings, late nights, and weekends to meet deadlines or coordinate with clients in different time zones. These deadline pressures and work hours can often lead to stress, fatigue, and even burnout. Extended time spent in front of computers can lead to eyestrain and back pain.
How do we jump from one of the least stressful jobs to “moderator to high stress”?
My favorite part of the article appears near the end:
Real advice from real people about landing a job as a technical writer:
Until now, reader, you’ve been reading fake advice from fake people. In this section, you get to hear some real content.
Despite the shortcomings of the article, I like the attention on web, multimedia, and graphics. This reinforces my specialization in web (WordPress and Mediawiki), screencasts, and visual graphics. It’s not that structured authoring isn’t important, but in the eyes of the user, maybe not so much.
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Tom, thanks for showing us what the emperor is really wearing. The article reads like a User Guide written by a tech writer with no domain knowledge. They’ve pieced together a few random “facts” and attempted to draw conclusions. I love how we’re grouped with AC repairmen and curators (not content curators, incidentally, but “curators” in the traditional museum sense).
As far as the Bureau of Labor Statistics failing to mention trends: until a year or two ago, BLS classified us together with poets. Remember how STC had to work hard to get them to modernize their categories? We moved them from the Stone Age to maybe 1990. I’m afraid it’ll be another 20 years before BLS knows anything about structured authoring and reuse.
At least the real advice came from a real person who really knows his stuff.
I can’t imagine how hard it must be for a news organization to accurately describe 50 plus careers that are outside the writer’s domain. I guess it gives us a glimpse to the bias and inaccuracy of what is supposedly an objective perspective.
It is interesting that we’ve broken the grouping with fiction writers, poets, and other writing-related careers.
At any rate, it’s cool to see tech writer listed here, because I think it is a good profession.
The quality of journalism has been steadily declining and this article is no exception; the author didn’t search out other information, hence the stress discrepancy.
It may be a great profession, Tom, but there have been declining opportunities for us (and declining pay rates) over the years; it’s been torturous for many of us to find work – even before this major recession.
Fortunately I’ve been steadily employed again for over 2 years, but before that, the previous 4 or so years were horrendous; and I know I’m not alone.
I agree with the back pain part. I’m using a small pillow for lumbar support at work now. I’m also looking into getting a better chair for my home office. As for eyestrain, oh yes, got that too!
“It’s not that structured authoring isn’t important, but in the eyes of the user, maybe not so much.”
Hear hear. Nor should it be. Structured writing is my dear baby, but it’s a means to an end. It’s the end that should concern everyone – that’s what the user sees. Structured content is an enabler that keeps the writer from losing their mind and the business from overspending. The result is improved but how it got that way should be opaque the user.
Structure goes around and between the text and media content, controlling and enriching it and making it more manageable, in many ways it’s arguably part of the content.
In the end, structured writing is a way for 3 people to deliver at a level of quantity AND quality what would otherwise take 9 people. Wether you stumped up for 9 writers or not is not your user’s concern.
The report could have recognised this, but as you point out, it’s clearly not dealing with subtleties here or they wouldn’t have lumped tech writers in with refrigeration technicians!
- Noz, http://lessworkmoreflow.blogspot.com
I guess the differentiation between ‘external’ and ‘internally recognized’ skills is because the internal skills are identified only after one has had a certain amount of practical tech writing experience. As we develop content, we ‘see’ how a structured approach can render our content more usable, how wikis can enable faster updating and dissemination of information, and how single sourcing can help cut costs and maintain consistency.
As an outsider, its near impossible to guess at all these aspects, so naturally the focus is on the external, flashy skills.
Thanks for the deconstruction of the article, Tom.
It is great to see technical writer listed in the top careers, but I’m not sure I agree with their prediction of a bright future. I keep hearing from recruiters that User Experience (UX) people are in demand much more than technical writers and that we should all retool ourselves to become UX people.
The data on salary is also a little suspect. While there are still tech writers who make $90K to $100K, that is a legacy from olden times when writers were treated and compensated on a par with software engineers in the industry. As more and more Principal Technical Writers are being laid off or retiring, that upper bracket is going away. New writers coming into the field out of college are not going to make that kind of money. Contract rates are continuing to drop, at least out here in Massachusetts. $17 per hour for a Senior Technical Writer is not uncommon lately.
BTW, HVAC technicians and tech writers both work with infrastructure and are underappreciated. You only notice the documentation when it’s missing or it sucks. You only notice the HVAC when it’s broken.
It’s too bad that STC stopped doing the salary survey in Canada because then we might be able to see real salary data for Canadians and Americans. I honestly cannot say I even know of a student doing an internship who is paid only $17/hr. Jobs in the energy sector pay the best. 90k is an easy average in that sector.
Would that be 90k US or Canadian dollars?
Maybe I should move to Canada.
I agree completely, as you’ll see from my separate comment. It’s been very bad in upstate NY, but I see tons of interesting, well-paid jobs advertising in NYC and a few other areas. I grew up near there; I’ve gotten too “provincial” to think about moving back there, and it’s so expensive to live there; and the lifestyle would not appeal.
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