Re: Education and Experience (long) [Was: Is a tech writing degree best?]

[Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Like Keith I have found that (at least here in the UK) the majority of TW
have migrated to the profession from assorted engineering disciplines etc.
I'm one of the few I know who have never done anything else and that was by
accident.  My degree was in Cybernetics (before it became "hot") and after
graduating I spent a year being under and over qualified for various jobs
before getting a jow as a trainee author. I had no idea what it was but by
then I didn't really care - it was a job!!  Training was "on the job" -
started in October and my first document went out to the customer in Jan
(after several re-writes!!). I remember with great fondness my two main
mentors who taught me more in those first few months than 3 years at
college.  As Keith said, college gave me the background but the real
learning (as with any job I think) comes from doing it.  You can theorise
all you like but until you do it, get it wrong, amend it etc .....  You
really do lear from your mistakes (quickly if you're lucky!).  That was
over 15 years ago now and I'm still learning.  Currently doing a distance
MA in Tech Authorship as part of company's continued professional
development (they're paying!) - I find it interesting and it's nice to
learn that a lot of the things I was taught and have been doing over the
years has a basis in theory - linguistics etc.  And of course it looks good
on resumes!

Looking back I consider myself to have been very lucky in landing in a job
I really enjoy, especially as I know of people in TW and other jobs who
don't enjoy their work and feel trapped - too late to change etc.

As to the original question of TW degree or not?  I think it very much
depends on the company hiring (here in the UK TW degrees are still
relatively new). Some will say, no TW degree (or even no degree) but you've
been doing the job for x years, good portfolio etc so we'll hire you.
Others see a degree as an ability to learn so it helps to get newbies
started and with a TW degree they may assume you know the basics and so can
walk (not crawl) and will break into a stumbling run quicker than somebody
with a non-TW degree!  However, it all depends on the initial contact
(resume etc) and the interview.

Damien Braniff
Technical Author
PAC International

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