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Subject:Re: Tech Comm Survey From:"Simon North" <sintac -at- home -dot- nl> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 14 Oct 2004 01:24:16 +0200
Since everyone else is playing, time I joined in.
> 1. How long have you been a technical communicator?
21 years.
> 2. Have you noticed changes in software programs that you use? Explain
> briefly.
My first word processor ran on a Diamond 7 under CP/M ... then came IBM DisplayWrite,
WordStar, WordPerfect 4.2 (ever tried manually justifying pages of text?) ... they've
become more feature-laden (I resisted the temptation to say more powerful 'cos they're
not) but some things don't change: Interleaf rocked, Frame is still good, and MS Word
still sucks.
> 3. Have you noticed a change in salary? Explain briefly.
It goes up and down. I'm now earning about 10% more than I was 10 years ago ...
thinking of going back to contracting.
> 4. Do the tasks that you complete now vary from what you did when you began
> working in this field? Explain briefly.
In the beginning I wrote for hardware. Now I write mostly for software. I spent a few years
doing IETMs and now everything I do is aimed at Online use (RoboHelp ... since
ForeHelp died, sob, sob). I used to play with WordPerfect codes, now I code a lot of my
own stuff (XML, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Rebol). I used to just write, now I
write, manage content, single-source, engineer and design documentation systems.
> 5. How many times have you changed jobs or relocated?
Changed jobs: 8 times (laid off twice). 11 times; once twice in 2 months after Pergamon
crashed when Robert Maxwell drowned.
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