Re: "Software Technical Writing is a Dying Career"

[Ryan Haber <ryan -dot- haber -at- gmail -dot- com>]

UX is a relatively new concern in software development, largely fueled by
the exponentially increasing number of people buying more and more
computing platforms and using them more and more frequently. As UX
improves, I think it is fair to expect documentation needs to be reduced,
at least as a proportion of any particular project's budget and as market
share of the development process.

The reason that technical writers will always have a future, if not a
booming market, is that even a relatively simple, straightforward, and
common application like MS Word absolutely needs user documentation,
whether it is offline, online, or contextual. More complicated applications
and platforms, and those with slimmer user bases or that never become
commonplace, will continue to need documentation.

The article's broader point is that technical writing will not be a career
in which one can coast, and I think that's absolutely true and fits my
experience perfectly. A real service that the article provides is mapping
out, in brief, how technical writing can lead into other careers. One need
not go from technical writing to unemployment, simply because one's own
employer no longer needs technical writing.


All the best,
Ryan

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Ryan Haber
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Bethesda, MD 20814
301-908-3049
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On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 2:52 PM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
wrote:

> http://softwaresaltmines.com/2015/06/16/software-technical-writing-dying/
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
>
> Cordially,
>
> Craig Cardimon | Senior Technical Writer
> Marketing Systems Group
>
>
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