Re: Career paths for technical writers

Subject: Re: Career paths for technical writers
From: Carol Gilbert <cgilbert -at- cal -dot- berkeley -dot- edu>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:48:31 -0700


My best advice is to be aware and take on new things or go offer to take on new things that seem to need doing. Tread lightly because no one will be pleased to see someone trying to take over their area, but in smaller companies, often the extra helping hands are appreciated.

For example:
Do your own QA of the content and the navigation of your company's Web site. I ended up Web master at one of my employers ultimately.

Offer to give a class on developing presentation skills (slide design, organization of content, whatever you do well).

Contribute news to your internal company newsletter.

Start a customer newsletter that can act as a forum for tips and tricks about using the product, answering problem questions, announcing forthcoming releases, customer case studies.

Start usability testing of the documentation and the product.

Talk to Marketing and see if they need any support.

Would Marketing/Sales like to see some white papers published? Maybe you can pull a team of people together to write one.

I think I have done them all at one time or another. There are numerous possibilities related to your understanding of the product and writing skills. Good luck, - Carol Gilbert

=================================
On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 01:24 PM, Karen Casemier wrote:

I'm interested in how someone
who has done well in technical writing might advance their career both
vertically and horizontally (if that makes any sense!) - moving not just to
management of a documentation department, but getting involved in other
areas besides straight technical writing.

I'd like to hear about the different types of work list members do beyond
the traditional manuals/help files/etc, especially from those who have been
with the same company for a while. How did you get involved in these
different types of work, and how did your technical writing experience help
you with these projects? I work in software, but would be interested in
hearing from list members in other industries as well.


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

ANNOUNCING ROBOHELP STUDIO

RoboHelp Studio maximizes your Help authoring power by combining RoboHelp Office and RoboDemo, so you can easily create professional Help systems that feature interactive tutorials and demos.

Find out more about RoboHelp Studio at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2

---
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.



Previous by Author: Re: Career Paths for Technical Writers
Next by Author: Re: Need cross-platform screen cap assistance
Previous by Thread: RE: Career paths for technical writers
Next by Thread: Re: Career paths for technical writers


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads