RE: gearing up to be a tech writer

[Jonathan Kajeckas <jgkaje -at- wm -dot- edu>]

Thanks to all who took the time to respond to my request for advice on how 
to prepare to be a tech writer, ideally able to work from home as a 
contractor. I thought I'd summarize for the list the advice I received.

I received several responses addressing:
1) technical training, specifically MCSE certification and other 
technologies that employers might find attractive, such as Linux. A few 
respondents openly questioned the value of an MCSE unless I want to do 
system administration or write specifically about Windows 2000. A few 
reported pockets of employer interest in Linux, and one writer from Seattle 
reported great interest in XML.

2) tools for technical writing, such as Framemaker, TeX, and Word (in the 
context of the MOUS Word Expert exam). Though one writer from Colorado says 
she never sees a request for it and a few others wrote that clients often 
want Word, I received several messages urging me to purchase Framemaker 
while I qualify for an academic staff discount. TeX is apparently not used 
outside academia; I asked about it because I had seen it's structured 
document model favorably compared to Framemaker. Technical writers are 
apparently assumed to be experts in Word, and no one has seen the MOUS exam 
requested or touted. I received mixed but generally favorable reviews of 
Visio as a flowcharting tool, but more than one writer suggested that I 
would be better off with a graphics package, Acrobat, and website 
management tool. One writer reported many tech writing job offers based 
solely on his knowledge of Robohelp. Scripting languages met with a yawn 
(no doubt different for webmasters), VB was considered okay though not 
compelling, and C++ more valuable.

3) job searching. I heard from a few writers that telecommuting is an 
option usually granted to full-time staff after a time, and rarely given to 
full-time contractors; on the other hand, one writer said she had 
difficulty finding full-time work until she had some contractor experience. 
Several people offered suggestions on how to look for contract work on the 
web, including www.dice.com (perhaps the most prolific), 
www.computerjobs.com (this one has Technical Writing as a specific 
category), and www.scguild.com (membership-based, smaller and more select). 
I found quite interesting an article by Donald Le Vie on flat fees vs. 
hourly rates, available from the STC archives at 
http://www.stc.org/intercom/PDFs/2000/200009-10_18-21.pdf. I received 
generally good recommendations about placement services for technical 
writers. Two that I have found are www.techwriters.com and www.techprose.com.

Finally, several people wrote about the experience of living and working in 
Sonoma County, where many tech jobs are drying up and the cost of housing 
is quite high, and the scenery is still beautiful. Many thanks for all your 
comments.

Jonathan Kajeckas
IT Liaison for Morton
1-1959


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems 
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East, 
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline 
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com. 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.