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> I was completing my Ph.D. at Stanford in comparative literature but
> found
> my life increasing complicated by the near-impossibility of living in
> the
> bay area on a grad student's stipend (although I know of course I was
> lucky
> just to have one). As I had jobs before doing tech writing (contract
> and
> over the summers), I finally decided this year to take a full-time job
> as a
> tech writer. I'd been feeling dispirited about academia and was tired
> of
> starving.
You're definitely not alone. I was in a pretty similar situation about 5
years ago and I ended up as a technical writer with a 9 to 5 job
(actually more like 8 to 6, at least I get paid for the overtime). What
did it for me was the uncertainty of trying to make an academic career,
like you work your butt off on slave wages for several years and it's
totally uncertain whether you'll ever find a decent job in your chosen
field.
> Though I don't have any problems doing the work -- I already had a
> fair
> amount of experience and have always been a major techo-phile
Another good point. Having done a degree in Linguistics and Artificial
Intelligence, I find techwriting, is something I can do really well, and
I can earn a lot of money there without having to stress myself too
hard.
> - I'm finding
> the transition a bit rough at times. Will the work be satisfying in
> the
> long run? What is the career path for a tech writer? It's nice work
> now,
> but should I just go out and get some kind of engineering degree as
> well?
> Or move to marketing?
It depends, of course. On the whole I find that, as far as jobs in the
corporate world go, I could have done a lot worse than being a technical
wrtiter. I'm not sure whether this is what I want to do for the rest of
my life, but for now I'm reasonably happy.
Mike
--
Mike Dannenberg
ETAS GmbH & Co.KG
midannen -at- si -dot- bosch -dot- de
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