RE: Techwriting after the boom

[Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- pinnaclewest -dot- com]

Laura Lemay wrote:

<<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.>>

I'm a technical tech writer in Arizona with 18 years experience, programming knowledge, but no third party books to my name (although i own one of Laura's! <grin>).  I'm lucky enough to be on a long term contract with a utility company's IT department. The utility company is very loyal to its employees, and although I am still a contractor (having not made it under the wire before the last two year's hiring freeze), they seem to be keeping me on indefinitely.  Plus I now have pretty rare specific business and technical knowledge about power trading and in-house software.

Still I have the picture that even a technical tech writer in Arizona would be hard put to find jobs, rates would go down, and time in between contracts would be longer here.

My consulting company boss said there is a little upturn out east in the major population centers, but this is not showing up in Arizona or elsewhere in the country.

Rose A. Wilcox
CHQ, 17th Floor
Tranz1 QA/Documentation
602-250-2435
Rose -dot- Wilcox -at- PinnacleWest -dot- com

The only real voyage of discovery consists not
in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust 







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