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Subject:why we do this From:Ken Cherry <dad -at- NETWALK -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 2 Dec 1998 12:13:29 -0500
I started out teaching writing to college freshmen. Pay was horrible and the
potential for tenure was slipping each year into impossibility.
Then, my wife and I had our first child.
Suddenly, money was a pretty big issue. So I took a job with a publishing house
as a college textbook editor. The money there turned out to be not much better.
Moved to Ohio. Jobs with university publishing, journal management, forays into
computer use (learned to program in dbase to track submissions and reviewers),
and finally a job as a quality assurance (hah!) person overseeing and revising
the work of 50 tech writers who were creating the documentation for Bank One's
revision of their core software.
That led to more tech writing work, project management stuff, research and
reporting on industry trends, and finally Help Authoring.
Finally, my salary is pretty significantly above my age (a marker we used to use
back in academia).
And I get to choose my work environment.
I like new tools, new people, new challenges. And the independence and respect.
