25 Mar 2012
Careers • Technical Writing

So where are these specialist technical author roles?

When you reach a crossroads, how do you know which is the best way to turn?

With the gentle breeze of change blowing through my employers (its not yet had time to build into a wind since the takeover), I have been taking stock of my position, my goals and begun to look around at what opportunities are out there.

From the discussions I have engaged in on Twitter, Linked In and around the blogosphere I thought the market for technical authors would be more splintered and I would encounter more opportunities for what I consider to be the current ‘buzzword’ roles than I have actually found. Buzzword roles are those everyone seems to be talking about, those which technical authors could/should perform well in. I’m thinking of:

  • Content Strategist
  • Information Architect
  • Content Curator

One of the major employment websites in the UK returns the following numbers of open vacancies (posted in the last seven days):

  • Technical Author – 118
  • Technical Writer – 33
  • Content Strategist – 9. Only one of these had the job title of Content Strategist, the remainder had content and strategy within the description.
  • Information Architect – 270. The majority of these were combined with UI or web design.
  • Content Curator – 0.

The good news is there seem to be jobs out there. My initial findings are positive and there are a couple of positions that caught my eye. All I need do now is practice my interview technique. It’s been a long time!

Maybe I wont go in for a complete change though

I was commenting to a friend that technical authoring jobs in my part of the country seem few and far between which means either moving home (which we had done a couple of times before my son came along but would now be so much more difficult) or long commutes (expensive and tiring). I was musing about what I could do should I decide to change direction. Her responses: comedian or life coach. I’m not sure if she meant my life to date is a joke or puts me in a position to offer useful advice to folk – I dare not ask!

 

Rob Allison | 2 comments
12 Mar 2012
Technical Writing

Waterstone’s drop the apostrophe from their signage – the end is nigh!

Waterstone's shop signage

Soon to be historic Waterstone's signage

The bookseller Waterstone’s is to become Waterstones.

The apostrophe being dropped, they profess, makes the company’s trading name more practical and versatile in a trading world of URLs and email addresses.
This decision has been met with howls of derision from the grammatically sensitive. The Twitterati waded in with the hashtag #isnothingsacred to vent their anger over the planned change.

A piece on the Telegraph’s site contains the following fantastic quote from the chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society:

John Richards, the chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society said: “It’s just plain wrong. It’s grammatically incorrect. If Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s can get it right, then why can’t Waterstones. You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English.”

The press have also been quick to devote columns to the issue of the soon to be dropped apostrophe, its ramifications to grammar and English, and even if Waterstone’s move is indicative of the dumbing down of the English language and our application / appreciation of it.

I agree that a retailer who peddles the written word should be a proponent and protector of the basic rules of grammar. In protest – I’ll never buy a grammar guide from Waterstone’s again.

Having said that, it is nice to see so many people notice and get riled at the amendment. That alone proves there remain a healthy number of pedants out there. Plus, reading the comments written on The Telegraph and Guardian website is good for a giggle or two.

Enjoy:

What do you think?

Does it matter that a fast food retailer employs a better use of grammar than a book retailer in its signage?

Should the rules of grammar really be applied strictly to a company’s name and signage?

Should we care? Language is constantly evolving and the apostrophe seems to have stumped most, greengrocers at least, since time immemorial.

I have just noticed that my spellchecker does not like Waterstones either.

 

 

 

Rob Allison | No comments
29 Feb 2012
Technical Communications • Technical Writing

No 1 laid back career. Really?

Number one laid back career. Really?

The title of Tom Johnson’s latest post on his blog ‘I’d rather be writing’ grabbed my attention for a couple of reasons.

Check it out for yourself: Incensed at “Laid-back” Categorization of Technical Writing Career.

Firstly, Tom is normally such a laid back fellow that the thought of him being incensed at anything immediately caught my attention. The remainder of the title ensured it was a post I would read. Tom was responding to an article on Yahoo careers, 5 Low-Stress Career Options, which places technical writing in the number one position for laid back careers. Not top ten, not pushing for a podium position but top dog, numero uno, the big cheese in laid back career choices.

If this is true I need to look at my employer, every previous employer, the way I approach the job and how my peers approach the job.
I was so taken aback with the article’s angle that I performed a quick straw poll around the office and at home to test how others see my profession:

  • What do you think is the most laid back career? Responses:
    • Artisan / craftsman
    • Aromatherapist
    • Road sweeper
    • Masseur
    • Gardener / Park Ranger
    • Stop/Go sign operator on an Aussie motorway

So no technical writing jobs in the laid back career list or anything approaching a technical author.

  • Describe the role of technical writer in a word or phrase?
    • Demanding
    • Evolving
    • Multi-faceted
    • Cutting edge
    • Useful
    • Practical
    • a teacher of teachers and experts
    • Pedantic

Nothing even close to laid back in the role description. So what makes technical writing so laid back to the Yahoo Education team?

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.

Long term assignments? I’m not sure any/many technical writers benefit from long term assignments anymore. In fact, long term assignments are what I do to meet my annual objectives while supporting the business in its day-to-day activities.

For example, try working within an Agile software development cycle where deliveries are made twice-monthly and tell me about long term deadlines.

Try servicing the documentation requirements of a number of Agile Scrum teams whilst providing the release documentation support to a Support and Maintenance department. Long term assignments? I wish…

Tom may be incensed. Personally, the article left me speechless. Having now read the article a number of times, forwarded it on to peers and colleagues and seen their feedback all I can say is I don’t see my role reflected in Yahoo’s piece.

If anyone has one of these laid back technical writing positions please let me know. I’d love to hear about any companies with such a vacancy. For that I’d be willing to change my mind!

Rob Allison | No comments | Tags: ,
22 Feb 2012
Blogging • Technical Writing

Change is good

The best laid plans

All change at my employers. It was announced last week that we are to be sold off by our parent company.
My plans and workloads for this year already took up the entire first half of the year and left little space over the course of the second half. Now faced with a complete rebrand everything will, sooner or later, be turned upside down.
They say change is good. I hope the short-term pain brought by having to put everything on hold while we rebrand is later repaid with long-term benefits of being part of a new organisation.

And on the blog

I currently have posts in draft discussing the WordPress plugins I use and on using Google analytics in websites and user assistance systems.
I am also playing with a ‘talking head’ style question and answer video to introduce myself.

Rob Allison | No comments | Tags:
12 Feb 2012
Blogging • Screencasting • Technical Writing • WordPress

Where do you turn for information…

A signpost pointing in many directions. Which is the right way to go to find the information you need?

To get this site up-and-running relatively quickly I have faced some heavy learning and tight deadlines. The areas I am investigating include:

  • How to set up and configure a WordPress blog.
  • Working with MySQL databases.
  • WordPress security.
  • WordPress widgets and themes.

To bring the blog to a point where I could start posting I have delved into a number of information resources:

  • The WordPress Codex.
  • YouTube.
  • Various third party WordPress blogs and sites.
  • A number of text books:
    • WordPress All-In-One for Dummies
    • WordPress 3 Complete
    • WordPress Bible

Each of these channels has pros and cons but together they have provided me with answers to all my questions, guided me through the installation and update processes, and introduced me to issues and areas I hadn’t even considered.

YouTube

YouTube videos have provided excellent introductory and overview information. After watching only a couple of videos I had a good idea about how the WordPress dashboard works and the topics I needed to investigate further in order to be able to set up and configure the site. I found I was able to absorb a lot of information in a short space of time watching videos.

Unfortunately, I struggled to follow instructional processes directly from YouTube Videos. In the end I watched videos to get a basic understanding of the process, then turned to text books for actual step-by-step processes. Interestingly, when my XboX recently stopped working, I was able to take it apart, clean it and re-assemble by following the instructions on a YouTube video. For me at least, YouTube works great for introductory or for practical tasks. At least for the time being, when performing tasks on a computer, I prefer to follow written instructions.

Text books

As I’ve already said, I found the step-by-step instructions written in the text books the easiest to follow. With their defined structure and style  (when compared to the Codex articles) I had faith in the information they provided (after checking that the information was still relevant!).

Another positive is the text book’s table of contents. It gives a structure and flow to the learning I needed to undertake and implement. Reviewing the chapters in the table of contents also introduced me to things I didn’t know I needed to know (bit of a Donald Rumsfeldism there).

The WordPress Codex

The WordPress Codex is useful for validating the information provided by both YouTube and the text books. I was concerned that the information and procedures detailed in the text books could have been out of date so I checked against the Codex for changes or updates.

My problem with the codex lies with its navigation and the quality of some of the information it holds. It might be that with such a massive resource it is inevitable that there will be duplicate and, in some cases, inferior, information on there. With such a variety of information covered there can be no easy way to structure it all but without searching for specific terms it is difficult to find information. Even after defining a search there can a lot of sifting through articles to find the truly useful stuff.

What can I take from this?

Screencasts are wonderful tour guides

For me, YouTube has been a wonderful resource for getting overviews and high-level information. The introductory tours around WordPress really help me understand how the interface works. At work last year I made some proof-of-concept screencasts to showcase new functionality to customers and colleagues. At the time I felt that providing stakeholders with a walk-through of new functionality would be a great way of advertising upcoming functionality; arm our consultants, sales and pre-sales colleagues with information collateral they could use; and generally provide everyone with much earlier sight of upcoming functionality.

The way YouTube has served me recently has only strengthened my view that screencasts are a fantastic channel to deliver product overview information. I’ll admit I’m not so sold on delivering task-based information through this media.

A renewed respect for the table of contents

If you are looking for a specific piece of information then a context-based call or search through a User Assistance / Help system is sufficient. What I have come to appreciate is how important and useful a part is played by a well structured table of contents.

Using the tables of contents from a number of text books helped guide and add structure to my learning journey. In contrast, the lack of a table of contents in the WordPress Codex makes it difficult, when in there,  to take a step back and see the scope and breadth of the stock of information held there and where any topic sits in the hierarchy.

With my rekindled respect for the humble TOC I think I may be investing some time in seeing just how useful those in our Help systems are in terms of grouping topics and at providing a clear idea of the sequence and size of tasks.

Where do you head to for information?

What resources do you use for information?

Does the type of information you are looking for dictate where you go?

Are you happiest following written instructions or watching and following a video or screencast?

 

 

Rob Allison | No comments | Tags: , , , ,
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