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> indefinitely doing this, but I fear dying from boredom. What I really want
> to do is work in the software industry, but the old chicken and egg
> problem persists. How to get the job without the experience? I did work in
I hate to be discouraging, since I think you are on the right track, BUT---right
now the high-tech industry is in a bit of a slump. I read somewhere that there
are 4000 tech writers out of work in the SF bay area alone---that number seems
excessive, but the result is obvious. I'm a 10-year veteran technical writer
from all over Silicon Valley, I know Java and C and some C++, and I have been
hunting for a job for 2 months and can't even get anyone to return my calls.
More than one writer with loads of experience has thrown in the towel and gone on
to some other line of work.
I would suggest that you stick with your job for now, and take some courses in
programming if you are in a position to go back to school. The hot subjects at
this point seem to be database connectivity (particularly with Oracle), Java, C++
and object-oriented programming, and other things I'm sure people will tell you
about. It really helps to have an idea about the software company's products,
though for some companies the products are hard to get hold of.
Sorry to be a downer, but this is not a pleasant industry at the moment.
Probably will be again in a few years.
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