Re: Has anyone had a good STC conference experience?

[Marcy Harbut <mharbut -at- corp -dot- earthlink -dot- net>]

In STC's defense, I have to say that the organization has been very useful 
for my career development as a technical communicator, especially when I 
first became a TC.

When I became a tech writer, I was leaving a journalism career. I had the 
reporting and writing skills, but I had to get used to a very different 
work environment and different subject matter. I had the added burden of 
carving out a new niche for tech writers at my company -- back then, the 
company was still in semi-startup mode. I was one of two writers among 
60-70 engineers, many of whom really didn't "get" what a tech writer did. 
It didn't help that they lumped my department with the administrative 
assistants, because Documentation was perceived as not being technical 
(read: important) enough to have a manager reporting to the VP, as did 
Network Engineering and System Administration.

A few months into the job, my boss sent me to the national conference in 
Anaheim. I can't tell you how that conference turned me around. I felt like 
I was finally around people who not only "got" what I did for a living, but 
had good, solid advice on how I can do it better. It dawned on me that I 
was in an actual *profession* and could become pretty damn good at it if I 
just started paying better attention. I'd like to think that my epiphany 
has had a direct impact on my department's subsequent growth, and the 
increasing respectability we've garnered from the geeks, as well as upper 
management. (We're no longer lumped with the administrative assistants, we 
were finally given a decent budget, and a lot of people defer to our 
editorial and design decisions because we're considered the "experts.")

I've been to some STC conferences where I felt that it was a wasted effort 
for me, so I don't want to sound like I'm blindly singing the praises of 
STC.  But, I do recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about a career 
in technical writing, or is new to the profession and isn't quite sure what 
all it entails.

-Marcy









----
Marcy Harbut                                     mharbut -at- corp -dot- earthlink -dot- net
Operations Technical Editor                 voice:  626.296.5159
EarthLink, Inc.                                    fax:     626.345.2658

"It would be helpful if we opened up ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge).
I think it's a mistake not to. And I would urge you all to travel up there and
take a look at it, and you can make the determination as to how beautiful
that country is."

- President George W. Bush, Press conference, Washington, D.C., March 29, 2001



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