Re: ...impersonating a technical writer...

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

Will anybody even notice someone learning the job as they go?
Many people don't know what a tech-writer does. I once watched
another tech-writer slack off for ten weeks with nobody except me
noticing.

I"m even tempted to say that even other tech-writers won't
notice. Despite the handful of good ones that I've met, the
general level of skill seems very low. How could it be otherwise,
when there are still little decent training and far more jobs in
the field than people to do them?

But, probably, tech-writers only seem worse than other
professionals because I've observed their shortcomings for so
long. Some days, I'm convinced that it's more than just
tech-writers who are impersonating experts. The entire high-tech
industry is so full of "just-in-time-learning," "on-the-job
training" and impulse decision-making that I sometimes wonder if
experts exist any more.

So how do things get done? The only explanation that I've managed
to come up with is: infinite monkeys, infinite keyboards. In
other words, there is so much happening that in high-tech that 19
out of 20 actions can be blunders and companies can still move
forward.

But the point is: don't think that anybody's likely to notice
your lack of experience so long as you're a quick study.
Everybody else is too busy trying to hide the fact that THEY
don't know what they're doing. :-)

(Now, was that dosage on the cynicism pills one or two every four
hours?)

--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
3015 Aries Place, Burnaby, BC V37 7E8, Canada
bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7189

"And standing there just as large as life,
A-smiling with his eyes,
He says, 'The part that they forgot to kill
Went on to organize.'"
-"I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night"