Somewhat OT: Tech Writers vs. other writers

["ASUE Tekwrytr" <tekwrytr -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

The consensus of responses seems to be that experience is far more valuable 
than additional education or graduate degrees (when compared directly). That 
is an extremely interesting view, and I want to thank you for your 
responses. However, I hear the opposite argument with equal fervor from 
academics and graduate students. Despite a number of arguments provided in 
favor of experience by list members, the arguments are not convincing; most 
are based on experience in the high-demand market of the past, rather than 
current economic realities, and extrapolate based on conditions that no 
longer exist.

In many fields, including technical writing, experience in the field does 
not necessarily equip someone to be a manager in that field. In fact, a 
major problem in industry is the promotion of the most capable workers to 
become marginally competent managers, thereby removing the best, most 
productive workers from the loop in the name of "career advancement." Good 
workers are not necessarily good managers, and good managers do not need to 
be good workers--they only need to understand enough of what workers do to 
direct and facilitate that work.

While producing technical documentation is an impressively complex task, it 
is also highly specific; the task completion skills learned in one job at 
one company do not necessarily translate equally to other writing jobs at 
other companies, while managerial skills are fundamentally the same from job 
to job. A competent manager in one company, or one industry, can transfer to 
another company or industry fairly easily, with minimal adjustment, and 
perform competently from the start.

Finally, this is 2003, and the halcyon days of yore when tech writers were 
considered a cherished commodity may be gone forever. Many existing managers 
became managers through promotion through the ranks in a booming economy. 
Those same managers may lack the skills to continure managing competently in 
an increasingly competitive marketplace, and may soon be replaced by better 
educated, more aggessive managers who lack the years of industry experience 
of the current managers, but more than compensate for that lack with 
business acumen and technical expertise in management. If anyone thinks that 
10 years on the job gives all the knowledge and experience necessary to be a 
competent, competitive manager in the field, he or she may be engaging more 
in wishful thinking than in reality orientation. (I actually worked for a 
company where one of the managers loudly and belligerently proclaimed at an 
executive meeting that he had learned everything he needed to know about 
management in the United States Navy--"do it or else!" One of the great 
pleasures of my life was firing him a few days later.)

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond.

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