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Subject:Re: [Fwd: Re: Is this really a tech writing job?] From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:37:02 -0800
That's going to come as a great surprise to one of the members
of my documentation team, who is a techwriter and also the
office manager/admin of one of our remote offices (though I think
I'm finally close to talking her into letting go of her nonwriting
power over the rest of the people in that office; if you think
that being an admin means not getting any respect, you need to
spend some time in that office).
The respect you obtain while doing this or any other job is
directly proportional to the respect you make it clear you require
to keep you from walking out the door as well + the quality of the
contribution you make. Yes, I have had to deal with writers who
complained that the tech folks treated them like "jumped up
clerical aides," but in all of these cases it was because they *acted*
like them, expecting the SMEs to spoonfeed them information
instead of rolling up their sleeves and working with the product to
get it themselves, or letting themselves be pushed around in what
was supposed to be their area of expertise.
As for how the person who gets this particular job fares, I guess
I'll just have to wait a year or two and then make a few calls
around town to see.
I've been an administrative assistant. I've been a technical writer. I
can tell you flat, Gene, you can't be both, not at the same company,
and expect any kind of respect. That goes double for technical folks
like developers and engineers. They will NOT, repeat NOT respect
someone whom they view as a jumped-up clerical aide, and foisting a
secretary with tech writing tasks on them as a "technical writer" will
only undermine what little respect they have for the field as it is.
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