Internships-I had a few of those

[kathleen wehle <peridot100 -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

During my college summers, I was an intern for a radio station, a real estate magazine publisher and a beach community paper.  I have a BA in Journalism, emphasis in Ad/PR. I also have a two year degree in Graphic Design. I worked in a variety of print media environments following college, but few had benefits and they paid $9-$13 an hour. Needless to say, they were production jobs, not the creative ventures I had sought when I studied in college.

I got into tech writing because it sounded like an interesting way to use writing to educate and inform, all the while you're learning all those systems yourself. Prior to this, I took a job in accounting firm because graphic design wasnt panning out like I had hoped. I had been at the accounting firm almost 3 years; it was longest job I'd had anywhere to date, and I hate finance.


PS-I have a suggestion for the Techwr-l list. Maybe everyone's email responses can be prefaced with a color code indicating experience. For all the relatively new people, the color would be GREEN. Myself included--I have been a tech writer for 1 year and 6 months. 
And for the all-knowing, all powerful...maybe SILVER?
 
Sincerely,

K. Wehle

"It's never too late to be what you might have been" George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans
Great mantra of career-changers




-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Hanson <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>
>Sent: Aug 9, 2006 2:18 PM
>To: "'Jones, Donna'" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>Subject: RE: Internships (was: Breaking into the tech writing job market)
>
>Went to college to be a high school English teacher, did student teaching my
>senior year, hated it, decided to go into something (ANYTHING) else. Got a
>low paying job 3 years after graduation. Worked with a great mentor that
>taught me a lot about my own writing and instilled some natural tendencies
>in how I write that I still have today. The rest of the story is I left that
>job after 3 years to work at another company b/c 1) increase in $ and 2) it
>was for Windows-based software. Then came here when that company had
>difficulty meeting payroll. I've been here 8 years on 10/1.   
>
>
>Paul Hanson
>Technical Writer
>Adobe Community Expert - RoboHelp
>http://www.macromedia.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/team_members/200.ht
>ml
>Quintrex Data Systems 
>http://www.quintrex.com
>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Jones, Donna
>
>I think this calls for an informal poll: 
>
>- How many of you who actually started out wanting to be a tech writer began
>as a tech writing intern?
>- How many of you who started out as something else were interns?
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