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RE: Economic downturn = Time for professional development?
Subject:RE: Economic downturn = Time for professional development? From:Paul Hanson <phanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com> To:"'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 Dec 2008 16:00:59 -0600
Vincent,
There was a survey sent by Gretchen, a grad student, either yesterday or Tuesday. The responses to her questions may be a place to start. The fact that you have to learn new software in order to explain it makes it a plus for learning new tools that you would use to do your job. I was hired here with experience with Doc-to-Help, even though RoboHelp had already been purchased. What I think helped me was that I was familiar with WinHep - the help format my employer wanted to use (even though they didn't know it yet) and had enough of an understanding to dig in. Sure, I had some false starts and started over a couple of times. However, I also learned quickly and, by the time I converted to HTML in 2006, I had built quite an impressive 100+ Winhelp modular system. I had my 10 year anniversary on 10/1/8.
So no. I'm in a position where I am constantly learning more about HTML and CSS. I use e-mail lists, such as Techwr-L and HATT, along with websites to learn more and to solve specific issues - such as getting Mark of the Web to run on a W2K PC with IE 6. I have no intention of going to grad school or taking software training. I was sent to the WinWriters conference in 2007 and while I learned a lot and could easily learn a lot by attending, I am not planning to ask to go this year. I am too busy! I currently have a backlog of 136 hours sitting on my desk.
The point is that you don't know any more about what will be marketable in the future than I do and I know zilch. I think as long as you show benefit to your employer, that's the safest you can be. For my part, I've gotten involved in User Interface design. We are rewriting some of our software. I was given 53 pages of screen shots of the new UI on Tuesday @ 5:05. I reviewed those pages on Tuesday night @ my kitchen table from 9-11 PM and gave them back Wed AM. Today, the lead came over with a $20 gift card to Target in appreciation of what I had done. I declined the card, thanked them, and plan on being a major contributor to the UI of this product.
That's my take, even in light of AT&T laying off thousands of workers today and writing documentation for a telecommunications software company . . .
<snip>
Has anyone else decided to weather the current economic storm by placing more focus on professional development? If so, what's your plan? Do you find yourself in graduate school, pursuing software training, or attending more conferences? Are you undertaking more diverse projects at work in the hopes of enhancing your resume? How are you prioritizing your efforts?
<snip>
At present, I train people and write user guides for proprietary systems, working closely with a team
of developers. Should I branch out into other forms of documentation?
<snip>
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