Re: anyone else in the same boat? (Long)

["Bondira:Joan" <jbondira -at- reesebros -dot- com>]

Hello all,

Yes, I am in the same boat, or at least in a similar one.  I've been lurking
on this list for about a week, and have decided now to de-cloak.

After working for over a decade as a mechanical designer, (already my second
career) I was suddenly faced with a protracted slump in the job market for
people in my field.  It's quite unpleasant to find yourself unemployed for
almost a year, but it's downright embarrassing to be unable to find a job in
the midst of the biggest boom-economy of all time.  Family and friends
wondered and whispered "Is she hitting the bottle?" or at least that's what
my imagination was poking me with.

Then totally out of the blue, a former co-worker recommended me for a
technical writing position where she worked  She recalled that I had written
some maintenance manuals for a mechanical system where we had worked
together a few years before, so when this position opened up, she thought of
me.  I wasn't exactly optimistic about this prospect for several reasons:

1.	This friend who thought I was such a great writer is not American,
and her command of the English language is, well, to be blunt, even worse
than that of most Americans, so all her endorsement really validated was our
friendship.
2.	I don't have a college degree, and community college English comp is
the extent of my education with respect to writing.
3.	The IT world was about as familiar to me as calculus is to cows.

I considered what would be the worst that could happen, and decided that it
would not be blowing the interview, but rather, actually landing the job,
only to crash and burn.  Then I would be fired, and wouldn't have a job.
But wait, I already didn't have a job, so what the heck?

Much to my surprise, they made me an offer about three hours after I left
the interview, and as the Wizard of Oz was heard to say, 'times being what
they were, I accepted".  That was October of 99, and I'm still here, the
only technical writer (I am too!  That's what it says on my nameplate!) at
this place, with little precedent and even less guidance.  All things
considered, I suppose that I'm doing fairly well, at least as far as
management is concerned.  For example, recently our biggest client demanded
that all of its vendors develop a particular new technology, and required
documentation to accompany it.  After completion of this project, the CIO
forwarded an email to me from the client, which basically spanked all the
other vendors for doing such a pathetic job on their documentation, and
asked her if they could use ours as a model to guide the others!  There have
been other affirming occasions as well, such as outside auditors
complimenting the quality and organization of our documentation.  I realize
that these people are probably not the best judges of technical writing, but
for someone with my lack of experience and education, even becoming an adept
window dresser seems somewhat of an accomplishment.

There are days when I feel like a fraud, but then I say to myself "well, if
you are, you're a pretty darned good one to survive this long".  In the
meantime, I'm trying to take steps to legitimize myself by working toward a
professional writing degree, since the only school that offers a technical
writing degree in my area is prohibitively expensive.  I've also completed
one Java course, and am starting the second, to be followed by C++.  It
couldn't hurt, could it?

Since I've been operating in a total vacuum up until now, I'm delighted to
find this mailing list, and there are so many questions I'd like to ask of
you "real" technical writers.  But I'll leave it at the following for now
(and peruse the archives before I ask any others):

Given that people tend to drop like flies for no apparent reason at this
company, and given that I won't have the sheepskin for a few more years, do
you think that there's hope for someone like me (44, by the way) in this
field?  If they suddenly decide to extinguish my torch, do you think there's
a chance that I might find another position without a degree?

If you're still with me after all of that, thanks for your endurance, and I
wish you all the happiest of holidays!

Joan Bondira
Alleged (but well-intentioned) Technical Writer


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