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Incensed at "Laid-back" Categorization of Technical Writing Career

by Tom Johnson on Feb 24, 2012
categories: technical-writing

I was completely incensed to read Yahoo's categorization of technical writing as the #1 laid-back career. In 5 Low-Stress Career Options, the writer makes the ridiculous claim that technical writing isn't just a low-stress job, but is apparently the #1 lowest-stress job of any career in America!

Laid-back Career #1: Technical Writer

Technical writers often write articles, manuals, and instruction booklets on a variety of topics, including science, technology, business, and medicine. If you're passionate about the written word, you might be interested in a career as a technical writer.

Laid-back features: Technical writers, which ranked sixth on CNN Money and PayScale's list of "10 least stressful jobs", said they felt less daily deadline pressure because many of the assignments are long term. (Read more)

Apparently these findings come from interviews with 40,000 American workers! 40,000!!! I was about ready to throw something at my screen in disgust when I looked over at my tech writing colleague and saw this:

Ahhh, figures.

I'm kidding of course. I do agree that technical writing is a low-stress job, but it isn't quite as low stress as some might imagine. Regardless, this is what my wife thinks I do at work all day. (By the way, I would love to see a "What I Actually Do" meme on this topic.)

About Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

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