Re: Desperately seeking employment (and why)

["Marie C. Paretti" <mparetti -at- RRINC -dot- COM>]

Once again we're mired in the myth that all "technical" writers
document highly technical material. While "ya gotta speak
geek" play well if you're working with engineers, not
everybody in the world documents something that requires
extensive technical understanding. Among other things,  I document
data entry applications, in which it's much more important that I
speak "keyer" than "geek." I document forest inventory software,
and in doing so, I've learned to speak in DBHs, merchantable
heights, and log rules.

It's not a matter of "speaking geek" or having strong technical
knowledge (I knew next to nothing about forestry a few months
ago). It's about being able to *learn* the language of whatever
industry you're working in. You don't have to speak it before you
get there; you have to be able to learn it quickly, ask intelligent,
questions, and gain fluency as you go. And you have to be able
to figure out what language the *user* speaks - if the user is
a financial analyst on Wall Street, you better *learn* to speak
mutual funds and Dow Jones; if the user is a timber logger, you
better *learn* to speak trees and tree-products. I've found that
I gain SME's respect fairly easily if I listen a lot and grasp (not
master, mind you) their field quickly.

Caveats: Of course there *are* some highly technical
fields where you most certainly do need to go in with a substantial
knowledge base in order to make yourself useful and productive.
I'm not about to try to write rocket maintenance manuals for
NASA any time soon - I may be many things but "rocket
scientist" isn't one of them! ;->


Marie
Marie C. Paretti, PhD
Manager, Technical Communications
Recognition Research, Inc. (RRI)
1750 Kraft Drive, Suite 2000
Blacksburg, VA 24060
(540) 961-6500
mparetti -at- rrinc -dot- com
http://www.rrinc.com


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