Re: Techwriting after the boom

[Laura Lemay <lemay -at- lne -dot- com>]

> thank God I don't have to be out looking right now. But I am curious -
> for any of you who are out of work. How do you find looking for a job in
> tech writing to be right now? Are you getting a lot of bites? No bites?
> Some bites? And also, would you think it will get better, let's say -
> the first of next year? I mean have you heard about any expected trends
> I might not be aware of, etc.? I am just asking out of curiosity and
> also because from time to time people ask me what I do and then they ask
> if it is a good field to be in. It used to be but as for now, I am not
> sure since I am not out there looking. 


I am a contract tech writer in silicon valley.  I specialize in really
technical software documentation.  I know how to program, and I write
for programmers. I have 14 years experience, and I wrote a bunch of
3rd party books that people recognize, which makes me kind of an odd
bird and not representative of the typical tech writer. I'm doing OK.
Companies aren't exactly falling over themsevles to hire me, but I can
find work if I beat the bushes.  Its still 2-3 months between jobs,
and my rates have fallen pretty hard, but the work is out there.  I
could probably find a full time job if I wanted one, but I'm not up
for that. :) This seems to be roughly the case for my other tech
writer friends who also write at the high end: there's work for the
geeks.

My friends who are not technical tech writers are really really
suffering, though.  It can be a year between contracts and weeks of
interviews for very short term jobs that pay almost nothing.  Full
time jobs are even harder to find.  I have writer friends who have
left the valley and left the industry altogether because they just
could not find work. A couple friends who were the most mercenary
contractors in the world have taken full time jobs if they were
offered and are planning to just hide until the jobs come back.  And
the jobs that are out there are more process-oriented, documenting
internal procedures and best practices type of stuff.  There's
absolutely nothing in application oriented user docs.

When will it come back?  I have no idea.  It seems like every few
months things seem to pick up a little, but then they sink right back
to where they were.  I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel
right now.  I don't see things *ever* getting back to the boom days.

If a newbie came to me with no experience and not a lot of technical
background and asked me if tech writing was a good career to get into
in this area I'd have to say NO, and firmly, too.  There are just too
many people chasing too few jobs, and the newbies are competing with
people with a lot of experience.  Now is not the time.

Laura
glass half empty


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