Re: The Senior Writer Dilemma: Solutions and Commentary

["Scott, Laurel N" <Laurel -dot- N -dot- Scott -at- AMEXCHANGE -dot- AMERITECH -dot- COM>]

I agree with Brian, Melissa, and Denise completely in the fact that the
management team should be shot, having a writer on their staff who has not
gained any writing prowess in 3 years. It is the responsibility of
management to develop one's staff (although many dont acknowledge or apply
this basic principle) and it is certainly a reflection on their leadership
skills to either have 1) not even noticed in all this time or 2) noticed and
not cared enough to address the problem. if management has a writer than
cannot be properly trained, then its time to fire and rehire. but if the
writer has a desire to learn and has not been given the opportunity, that
falls back on management as an eyesore. I personally could not sleep at
night knowing the people I manage (not in my current job but in a volunteer
program that is ongoing and consistently building in numbers and taskload)
were doing the same thing they were doing a year ago with the same knowledge
and skill level. what makes it more of a shame is that management can get
away with managing ineffectively a lot longer than subordinates can get away
with doing day-to-day tasks ineffectively. but that's the breaks of living
in a world where how much you make is likely to give you more priviledges
than how well you do it...

anyway. I also partially agree with Kevin, Jim and some of the others that
the writer him/herself must take accountability for their situation.
although the tone may have been a bit...(looking for a nicey nice word
here)....blunt, the sentiment is sound. a writer (and anyone else pursuing a
career) must and should take responsibility for their skill development and
career goals. There is no excuse for staying in a job that is not feeding
you i.e. helping your skills to grow and strengthen in order to further your
career opportunities. I can understand how, with no previous skills or
education, it would be difficult to understand what to do and how to do it,
so I don't want to imply that this is primarily the writer's accountability.
I feel strongly that the mgt here needs a good spanking...but I do want to
make it clear to the writer that in order to prevent future situations, some
accountability must be taken for the present situation and some initiative
to take on aggressive self-improvement in the future (this email asking for
help is an excellent place to start!). As Lisa pointed out in her email,
reality is much more different than the ideal. Sometimes management is only
as good as the team that works for them. The reality may be that mgt is not
responsible for anybody's career but most reputable companies do believe in
having their leadership shepherd the teams under their care, and they
document it. So hey--hold them to their own standards. This "gotta get mine"
attitude is a lose/lose situation--people work a lot harder for their boss
when they know their boss actually gives a darn about their life and future.


Now. On to solutions...Sarah's summary of what a senior writer constitutes
is very thorough, so I won't be repetitive (and I'm not sure I could have
phrased it as eloquently and effectively as she did, anyhow). Eric Ray sent
an email some time this week about how to create samples for a portfolio. I
actually saved this email because I have similar questions. I am an
entry-level technical writer (which kills JonesW' theory, doesn't it?). But
I actually don't do a lot of writing....

Curious, isn't it? I'm a technical writer for our web site. So I manage
quite a bit of content on a grammatical, QA level. But I don't really do
that full-time. I work with Visio a lot because I create designs for
potential clients to help them to understand how their content can be
developed and managed. It's also a very useful tool for the developers on my
team, because it helps them to create pages quickly and accurately. I enjoy
what I do, and I dare say that I do it quite well. But it utilizes my
graphic design skills, not my technical writing skills. I've been here a
little less than a year and I wanted to take some time to watch the other
writers and what they do and understand more how they have gained their
skills. What I have concluded, quite honestly, is that I don't want to learn
all of those things. I enjoy writing and wordplay but I'm not particularly
fascinated by templates and style guides and indexing. Although I have
considerable creative skill, my technical aptitude for writing is limited.
However I am building skills that will potentially give me a career in
project coordination (more through my volunteer committment, which is
actually just about a full time second job, but soon to begin here with this
job) and/or management, as well as graphic design/data modeling, and the
like. I do intend to learn some technical writing skills at this point
because I want to remain as marketable as possible in several different
fields. But I would not enjoy day-to-day work with massive documents,
enduring the horrors of Microsoft. I have witnessed the torture of my
technical writing comrades and sympathize much with their plight, but not
enough to join the struggle. And because of my limited experience, I'm on
this listserv in case my manager does suddenly forget my skill set and slaps
me with an impossible assignment that I will desperately need some guidance
to accomplish (assuming my 3 mentors here are unavailable). Plus I enjoy the
rapport of true writers in any forum; their dialog has a beautiful, well
designed structure to it.

In conclusion, maybe you haven't learned anything in 3 years because it's
really not interesting to you. If that's the case, move on to something that
is. Don't spend time regretting the fact that you may have wasted your time
at this company. Simply count it as a mistake, learn what you can from it,
and endeavor not to repeat the error in future career opportunities.
Everything is a learning process, and everyone on this listserv has made
mistakes. They may not be yours, but that's because we're all different with
unique strengths as wel as areas that need improvement. You need to do
something you enjoy that helps you to grow and mature in your skill level,
something you're proud to tell people about at dinner parties, something you
might have to stay late for doing overtime and not be too bitter about,
something you can look back at 10 years from now and not feel like your time
is wasted. You spend the majority of your time at work--make it something
you love and are really good at. That's the secret to success in a nutshell.


Enough of my diatribe.

Ways of improvement:

--Volunteer for some writing assignments. I can forward Eric's suggestions
if you would
  like.
--Look for an entry-level technical writing opportunity that clearly
indicates and
  encourages mentoring the candidate and doesn't expect a large skill set.
--Consider an internship, even if it doesn't pay.
--If you have a good relationship with them, address one of the technical
writers you work
  with and explain your delimna. Most people feel good about somebody
seeking them out for
  their wisdom and enjoy the opportunity to impart skills, as long as they
don't feel
  threatened. It's not neccesary to indicate that you're interested in a
senior level
  position, only that you would like the opportunity to grow and feel as
though they have a
  lot that you could learn from. Ego will take you a long way in getting
good mentors.
--Take a career skills aptitude test. You can find books on this in any good
bookstore or
  library. Ask the librarian or bookstore person to help you out. Amazon.com
is also a good
  source for looking books up by subject matter. Do you really enjoy
writing? Words? Why did
  you choose this career? Begin exploring your skills and interests and
building a career
  from there (there are also books on finding your career and how to get
started on one).

[I wish I could give you titles off-hand, but I really can't. I'm a
Christian, and honestly, God has guided my career path from the beginning;
I've never had to access much paper material to accomplish where I've been
and where I'm going. But I know that is not everyone's path, and there are
certainly many excellent books on the subject to steer you in the right
direction. Also, this is part of the initiative neccesary that we mentioned
above--to get out there and start researching on your own. So maybe it's
better that I don't have the titles to give to you. One last thing, I'm sure
there has to be a "technical writing for dummies" or "idiot's guide to
technical writing" available. There's one on everything else under the
sun...]

--Seek out a mentor. Find someone who is willing to help you. There are
people out there who feel that need to shepherd others, and they are within
technical communications just like any other field. There are many web sites
on the subject, and magazines, and the like. Write to a few of those people
and find someone with the time and compassion to work one-on-one with you to
accomplish this. I honestly would volunteer if I had the skill set to help
you, but I just don't have it...nor do my career goals intend to lead me in
that direction. But I do wish you the best. Everything will work
out...people have offered some good advice here, and I think if you print
this all out and digest the good while sifting out what's not applicable,
you'll do fine.

Sorry I'm so long-winded. Aren't y'all glad I won't be writing much?

Toodles.

Laurel Scott, Technical Writer
Knowledge Management Team, Technology Solutions
Corporate Information Services, Ameritech

"Teamwork: The fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results."

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