Re: Tech writer = office manager?

[Gene Kim-Eng <gene -at- genek -dot- com>]

All true, and as I have previously said, I personally know of several very 
good tech writers whose latent abilities
were discovered when they were suddenly called upon to add the duties to 
their existing jobs.  Hell, that's how
*I* got into the field (I was originally an aircraft field test and service 
engineer).  Yes, it is entirely possible that
somehow the company will, as John suggests, find someone who can actually 
research and write, most likely
because their qualifications grossly exceed the job requirements but they 
need the work badly enough to take the
job, who will manage to show them what they really need.  However, it is 
*more* likely that they'll shoot themselves
in the foot and *reject* anyone with the qualifications to actually do the 
job even if they do get such applicants
because they'll assume they won't be able to retain them (surprise) when 
the economy recovers, and end up
dumping the job on some poor admin who happens to have some DTP skills, 
resulting in unusable user docs and
an admin who really hates the job and will *also* leave when the economy 
recovers and opportunities in *that* line
of work improve.

BTW, have you ever tried changing your own brake pads without the (tech 
writer prepared) shop manual for your
car?  Brake pad companies *need* tech writers, whether they're hiring them 
or not. :)

Gene Kim-Eng



At 04:04 PM 4/3/2003 -0500, Dick Margulis wrote: