Re: credibility (longish but IMO worth reading)
Furthermore, the answers are not in some professional society or here onProfessional societies can help if they encourage a code of ethics and professional standards. Otherwise, Andrew is right: you have to earn respect for yourself.
TECHWR-L. Credibility and respect are earned by individuals. Nothing I (or any
of us) say or do will help build other people's credibility. You want
credibility - EARN IT. Do what it takes to earn credibility.
When I first started working as a technical writer, I fell in among the STC. In seminars, publications and conversations, I was constantly told that the profession wasn't respected. Because I was conditioned to expect a lack of respect, that's what I saw on my first job. I had difficulties with developers because those STC tech-writers whom I was naive enough to see as mentors told me that I would have difficulties. It seemed, too, that complaining about lack of respect was one of the signs that you were experienced, and, since I was making the transition from academia to business, I was perhaps more sensitive about belonging than I would otherwise have been.
Fortunately, the job market was such that I survived by contracting. As a result, I saw more of the high-tech industry and gained more experience than I would have done if I had joined a single company as a junior writer; within a year, I had gone from being an unemployed academic to being a consultant working on multiple job sites and planning projects, with sub-contractors working for me. I wasn't very far along the way before I learned that if I cultivated a couple of basic values in myself, I would have all the respect that I could crave.
First, I needed to show a willingness to learn. Not actual knowledge - just a willingness to learn, and a refusal to pretend that I knew something when I didn't. Of course, if I tried to learn, knowledge soon followed, and with it more respect. But what really seems to annoy other high-tech workers about tech-writers is their tendency to hide their ignorance - or, worse, to claim arrogantly that their ignorance doesn't matter. Developers hate these attitudes because the geek sub-culture is built on a willingness to learn. Executives hate them because they often conceal incompetence and make planning hard. I soon learned to hate them because they were simply too much work. Buckling down to achieve some personal expertise was much less work than maintaining a facade.
Second, I needed to learn a professional courtesy: to show an understanding that other people had priorities that weren't mine, and to make sure that I either did what I said I would or made provisions if for some reason I couldn't. In other words, I needed to learn to respect developers and executives as themselves, instead of regarding them as people who looked down on me and as potential enemies. Some of them were nasty in their own right, but - big surprise - many of them were interesting people if I made an effort to know them, and certainly more interesting than my early so-called mentors.
By focusing on the work and the working relations, I discovered that I didn't need to worry about credibility - it would come naturally. Once I understood that, I lost the cringe-mentality. The result? I've worked with technologies that interested me as more than a means to a pay cheque, and beside people who are world-leaders in their fields - and won their respect. I also left the STC behind and made more money than I ever expected when I started in the field, but those are almost incidentals.
In the end, credibility is a lot like writing style. If you worry about it, you'll have neither. However, if you focus on knowing what you need to say and saying it well, both come without any extra effort.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield
"I'll be riding stolen horses when you don't see me no more
I'll be riding stolen horses on some distant shore."
- Ray Wylie Hubbard, "Stolen Horses"
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