I’m speaking to the Silicon Valley STC in September about my personal thesis that, to survive, technical communicators must generate demonstrable profits (as distinct from quality, productivity, or customer satisfaction improvements) for their employers and clients. So I assembled this list of seven Tech Writing career variants for those curious how the role of profit-generator [...]
Archive for July, 2009
Tech comms niches that create profit for companies; stop being a ‘necessary expense’ – http://bit.ly/1aiQ7E
Posted in Uncategorized on July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Confronting the ethical challenges of contracting work – http://bit.ly/H5KrZ
Posted in Uncategorized on July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s amazing to me how many gotchas there are in the world of contracting. There’s the challenge of finding work. And that of staying current with technology and best practices. And then there are the ethical challenges of putting your clients’ interests [...]
How NOT to guess whether you have professional prospects – http://bit.ly/CZjmX
Posted in Uncategorized on July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
IMO, there’s one key determinant of whether a technical communicator (or any professional) has a future. If you can say — and prove — that what you do creates profits for your client or employer, and doesn’t strain key resources such as SMEs’ time, then yes, all else being equal, you’re likely to survive RIFs. [...]
Ideas for getting expensive software without buying it – http://bit.ly/ALzDX
Posted in Uncategorized on July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
A fellow Technical Writer describes some useful workarounds for the contractor’s age-old dilemma of not (yet) being able to afford a legal copy of the software you know you need. I’m not sure how many companies still pay for training of any kind in the current economy, but the self-employed certainly have to watch their [...]
Novel way of beating the bad Bay Area job mkt for Tech Writers – http://bit.ly/syner-53
Posted in Uncategorized on July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If you aren’t tied to your SF Bay Area address and are tired of the insulting prices being offered for technical communications services locally, here’s an interesting solution: go mobile. For those familiar with the book ‘Who moved my cheese?,’ follow that cheese and you’ll stay solvent. You may even prosper. The key: outside the [...]
