Re[2]: one-person dept.

[Eric Ray <ejray -at- OKWAY -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>]

     Hi all,
     I have to respond to this discussion about one-person
     shops. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I hired a
     part-time technical communicator, I was the only one in
     my group. While there are many times when it would have
     been nice to have had help, advice, or someone to
     commiserate with about the work, I think the advantages
     of working as the only technical communicator FAR
     outweigh the disadvantages.

     Several people in the tech comm program here at
     Oklahoma State have asked me about my experiences and
     what I thought about some aspect of their job search. I
     always volunteer that people should seek a position as
     the only tech communicator, or one of only a couple, in
     a company. Of course, then the burden of keeping up
     with the field and getting objective, practiced
     opinions about your decisions becomes greater, but that
     is what STC Chapters are there for.

     Working as the only tech comm, you have to make the
     decisions, clean up your messes, and learn about all
     facets of the job quickly. However, the school of hard
     knocks gives far more effective instruction than the
     most well-intentioned advice or comments from people
     who know. As several people on the list have noted
     recently, writing and editing skills are only a
     relatively small sub-set of the skills technical
     communicators have to have. On the job experience is
     the only way to get the other skills, and it appears
     that one-person departments provide more experience
     faster than more traditional settings.

     What do those of you who didn't start in this sort of
     environment think about that? Obviously none of us
     started in both environments...what does it look like
     from the other side of the street?

     Eric
     ejray -at- okway -dot- okstate -dot- edu

     BTW, the TECHWR-L list started because I was tired of
     being the only person here and I wanted to get feedback
     and opinions without waiting for the next STC meeting.
     The desert island syndrome can be a real problem,
     although it also happens in environments with several
     technical communicators in which some of the technical
     communicators don't have a certain degree of
     professionalism.
     Eric



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: one-person  dept.
Author:  "Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues"
      <TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu> at SMTP
Date:    9/24/93 10:28 AM

>Purely out of curiosity...  Besides me, how many overworked one-person
>departments are out there?

Add me to the list of one-person departments.  My work load is somewhat
heavy, but I don't think it's excessive, unlike a few who have responded!

Being a one-person dept does have some significant advantages.  I may get
the blame when I screw up, but I also get the praise when I do things
right.  I also like the variety and flexibility of "wearing many hats" (I
used to list my job title as "hat rack" :-).

Of course, my schedule is relatively light right now. If this topic had
come in a few weeks ago when I was frantically trying to meet a deadline, I
might have responded differently. <half smile>

Tamye Lyles <uupsi5!VX740.DNET.NASA.GOV!tjl743c> writes:

>it gets really lonely because I begin to feel
>like I'm totally isolated on a desert island because I'm the ONLY one here
>who has a pubs background.

This is the real downside to being a one-person department. That's why this
list is so helpful.

                                        -- Kelly
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelly K. Hoffman              Logicraft                "Reading the manual
Technical Writer              22 Cotton Road            is admitting
hoffman -at- logicraft -dot- com         Nashua, NH  03063         defeat."