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Subject:Re: Job Information From:Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 21 Jul 1993 09:46:27 CDT
> I will be graduating next year with a double major in Biology/Tech.
> Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Do most tech. writers work for
> a computer firm?
Many do, but not "all" by any means. The reason that you see more Computer
folks on this list is that software and hardware firms are more likely to be
connected to the "net."
> I have just recently subscribed to this bboard and
> everything I read seems to be about computer manual writing. Are there
> other job opportunities out there?
Oh heavens, yes! The year that I graduated (1990), Batelle Pacific Northwest
Research Laboratories was desperate for writers with scientific backgrounds.
They would have loved to interview someone with a background in biology (and
their Seattle campus is gorgeous!) They were even considering my background in
CS even though it was not their ideal "science" background. Also, you could
employ a Biology background to a software company, for example, if the company
was doing medical imaging or biological monitoring systems...
> I am very interested finding out the
> outlook for jobs in the technical writing field, so I hope the responses
> Allison's post will be posted to the board or if possible sent directly
> to me.
I heartily reccomend to all people in college that they research the job
field they are heading into very thouroughly, look at their own strength
and weaknesses, and tailor themselves for the kind of job that best utilizes
those strengths. I am a person with a great love of technical stuff, playing
with the latest and greatest hardware and software "toys" is my idea of fun,
so I tailored myself for highly technical software documentation by taking
nearly a full CS minor (an internship my senior year left me 5 credits short
of a CS minor when I graduated). Now I work for Texas Instruments documenting
C Compilers and Assemblers for Semiconductors. Fits like a glove.
There is a possible problem with becoming too specialized in that if the demand
for that specialization goes away you may have to retrain before you are
employable again. I'm baking on that not happening to my "speciality."
