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> Perhaps I should start by
> confessing that I am one of those people Andrew Plato has railed against
> frequently.
Since you go on to say that you learned to be a "technical technical
writer," I don't think that you are. But this comment is consistent with
the tone of the rest of your comment, such as your comment that you feel
like you are treated as a junior programmer. Excuse for saying so, but,
for one reason or other - perhaps because of burnout - you sound like
you have a bit of an inferiority complex.
> I am sure that some of you are thinking something like, OK. Dont let
> the door hit you on your way out the door. However, I wonder if there
> is not a bigger issue here. If we are not valued as writers, then what
> are we? More and more, I have felt pushed into a role of being some sort
> of junior programmer, always the less-than-swift member of a development
> team.
I dispute the idea that "we are not valued as writers." Yes, I have
worked in companies where that was so. But I have worked in just as many
companies in which my contributions were valued and well-rewarded. It
may be that you have been working with insecure geeks; the more skilled
the programmers are, the more likely they are to respect other people's
skills. But I wonder if what you - and many other tech-writers see -
isn't partly a self-fulfilling prophecy. The idea that we don't have any
respect is so widespread that I don't think that many writers can see
anything else.
> I am weary of all this, tired of being subject to constant layoffs, and
> wondering what happened to my profession. Is techwhirling really a
> career, or is it just a series of odd jobs?
It's not just tech-writing. High-tech in general - in fact, the job
market in general - is volatile.
Naturally, this situation is stressful. But I don't think that you'll
find any way out of this situation. If you think writers are in a bad
way, have a talk with one of the thousands of academics trying to
scramble for each semester's employment while waiting for the fading
chance of a tenured position.
> As a writer trying to make a living, however, I think that I have lost
> my profession. After the end of ten years, I never want to see another
> cube farm again, never want to listen to someone drone on about how this
> new system is revolutionary, and especially never want to hear again
> that I am a cost the company can live without. I wonder if others on the
> list, particularly those of you who have been around for a while, are
> experiencing the same thing.
Maybe you need to look beyond software documentation. There are many
other types of writing, and other career paths for people who have
entered a company as a writer. It sounds to me as if you have been doing
too much of the same thing for too long. At the very least, maybe you
need as long a holiday as you can afford.
While I sympathize with your mood, and I'm not a stranger to it, I also
think you're unlikely to find new work while you're in this mood. This
sort of self-defeatism may never been expressed in so many words, but it
communicates itself in a dozen sort of ways in an interview.
Interviewers may not know why they decide not to hire you, but chances
are that they will.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
"Ordinary people...are nothing without the ordinary truth, nothing at
all. They die without it: without innocence or candour. Indeed the very
great majority kill themselves long long before their time. Live as
children; grow pale as adolescents; show a flash of life in love; die in
their twenties and join the poor creatures that creep angry and restless
about the earth."
-Patrick O'Brian, "H.M.S. Surprise"
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