Re: How many have Bachelor's degree? (was RE: Creative, and Certified too)

[cchris -at- toptechwriter -dot- us]

> 
> So, the question is, have any of you Tech Writers bypassed a University
> education on the way to your career?  In addition to the seminars and
> training classes I take, would this Tech Writer Certification be of an
> earthly assistance as I grow my resume?
> 
> Regards,
> -------------------------------------------
> John Cook

Hi, John

If you plan carefully, you should do well as a tech writer sans degree. By
planning, I mean making sure you've got a skill set that's in demand and a
willingness to change employers every year or so until you have enough
experience that your lack of a sheepskin won't matter. (Lucky timing
doesn't hurt!)

I have a high school diploma, but--thanks to a good friend who taught me
electronics theory--was able to get a job as a test technician at a disk
drive manufacturer in Los Angeles (back in the stone age when we still
manufactured stuff like that in the USA).  My stroke of luck there was in
learning to troubleshoot digital circuits at a time when the computer
industry had just started booming.  I was able to jump jobs about every
six months until, when I moved to Washington DC three years later, I was a
senior electronics technician.

While working as a field engineer (read "travelling electronics
technician") in Saudi Arabia in '82, I learned to use an Osborne
"portable" computer, made some side cash writing resumes for Bechtel
employees, and decided that technical writing would be a good transition
from being a technician. I didn't foresee outsourcing, but it was obvious,
even in the early 80s, that  with integrated circuits and board swapping,
working as tech was a dead-end career.

Stateside, I slid into a senior tech writing position with TRW (they were
behind on a deadline for a classified project and needed anyone with
technical experience who could write). While at TRW, a technical  artist
taught me mechanical drafting and illustration.

At my next job, they gave me a MacPlus and MS Word, so I learned desktop
publishing. They also gave me Aldus FreeHand, so I spent time figuring out
how to do in FreeHand the isometric illustrations I'd been doing on paper
at TRW.

Things tend to snowball. My hardware experience picked up as a technican
helped me get a job as a technical writer. Knowing DTP and the
fundamentals of design, along with knowing how to illustrate, were the
reasons I got hired at Hughes Network Systems in Maryland. They were
modernizing their documentation and hired me to help give them a new look
(our revamped docs won several STC awards, so they were happy).

Do this stuff long enough and you'll get a reputation. I got enough
requests for side work that I started moonlighting back in '94. One job I
took on required learning Photoshop and PageMaker, so I was prepared later
when a VP I'd worked with at Hughes asked me to design his new company's
collateral (datasheets, newsletters, and such). After a few years, they
asked me to come work for them as director of marketing communications
(where I am today).


Regards,
Chris
___________________________________________
TopTechWriter.US
http://www.toptechwriter.us
Award-winning technical writing and illustration services.

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