Re: State of the Technical Writing Field

[Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Hiring and job retention numbers often sway heavily with the economy,
from what I've witnessed (also >15 years of experience). The nature of
the job is constantly evolving, as well. New areas of focus and
specialization are growing (HCI, specifically UX, and so forth). From
my experience (I've also worn many hats) the field is only dying for
those who cannot or will not evolve with it. As for the future, Who
knows. There will always be a need in many different areas, and there
will always be expansion into new specialization. How many people back
in 1995 thoght we'd be where we are today?

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Chantel Brathwaite
<brathwaitec -at- castupgrade -dot- com> wrote:
> I've been a technical writer for close to 15 years now.  While I've mainly
> written, I've also taken detours and have performed web development,
> requirements management, proposal writing, GUI design, graphics design,
> marketing, and multimedia developer functions.  Over the years, I've noticed
> many changes from the introduction of new software and technological
> concepts to differences in the way we document information and communicate
> with the end user.  The field has spawned many new specialties.  But in many
> ways, I feel that the field has contracted as well.  To be honest, there are
> times when this field seems as if it is dying - but my gut feeling is that
> what I'm actually seeing is more of a reflection of shifts in the economy,
> which has deeply impacted this and other fields.  I can say for certain that
> the technical writing landscape is much different than it was at the
> beginning of this decade (but can't we say that for just about every
> field?).
>
> That being said, how do you see current technical writing field in relation
> to how it was when you first started technical writing?  (Even if you've
> only started recently, feel free to comment.)
>
> What trends are you noticing?  Are there trends that you thought would
> continue but that stalled?
>
> And finally, what do you see as the future of the field?

-- 
Bill Swallow

Twitter: @techcommdood
Blog: http://techcommdood.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood
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