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Re: Experience = skill? (was various other threads)
Subject:Re: Experience = skill? (was various other threads) From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 17 Jul 2001 06:10:36 -0700
> Christine wrote:
> Experience does not always mean skill. There are plenty of bad
> "experienced" writers out there. There are surely some gifted newbies as
> well.
I agree. This field is filled with writers who drifted into their jobs
from other disciplines. I've seen situations where people who were not
tech writers (programmers, perhaps) get drafted to write some
quick-and-dirty docs to help out the company, then more docs are needed,
and suddenly it's five years later, and they're still writing docs, even
though they never gave a thought to the tech writing profession before
falling into it. But now they're tech writers with 5 years of experience.
And maybe they're good at it; maybe they're not.
I've also seen young whippersnappers armed with a cutting-edge tech
writing education, who blaze into a department ready to change the world
with the concepts they learned in school. These people can be an enormous
asset OR an enormous pain in the butt, depending on their personality and
your team's needs.
The newbies who've been posting seem miffed about the challenge of
acquiring experience, but it's an age-old problem that permeates most
professions. Almost all of us have had to deal with it.
You gotta start somewhere.
You may know from salary surveys that experienced tech writers in your
neighborhood are making 60K. Well, you'll probably need to be willing to
start out working for less. Significantly less. And yes, you may get a job
working with some geezer that doesn't know HALF as much about information
mapping as you.
But know this: If you're really good, you can rise to the TOP of the
salary scale for your demographic in as little as 3 to 4 years. Seriously.
And 3 to 4 years is _nothing_ in the Big Scheme of Things.
Also, even entry-level salaries for tech writers are better than the
salaries of MOST professional writers in fields other than tech writing.
Tough it out - you'll be able to afford that Beemer soon enough!
: )
- Keith Cronin
_____________________________________
"I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write
faster than anybody who can write better."
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