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Subject:RE: how bad is the job market? From:Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:'Robert Lauriston' <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>, 'TECHWR-L Writing' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Dan <dangarza1 -at- comcast -dot- net> Date:Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:03:59 -0800 (PST)
My two cents:
I think that some branches of tech writing are dead as good career fields. Generally speaking, any tech writing that is seen as "easy" by employers is pretty much dead. Writing docs or online help for consumer goods - those jobs are pretty much shipped overseas. Any American jobs in those branches will be way low pay. Lots of employers never really cared whether the documents that reached the customers were any good, and with the current crunch, they couldn't care less.
I think that technical writing will remain valuable, and a strong job field, in the upper ends. Things like chip manufacturers selling to other manufacturers - there is a serious need for quality documentation there, otherwise the buyers won't have the information they need to be able to actually use the chips they buy. Because they have greater need for docs that give them really useful information, companies that are doing B2B business will probably have more need of competent (i.e. highly paid) tech writing that companies selling to personal consumers.
The branches of technical writing that will remain high-paying are those that require the writer to have serious technical or engineering training in addition to writing ability. That's things like programming, hardware design, aerospace design...things where the technical writer really needs college level training to be able to understand the subject material well enough to be able to write about it. So the only branches of tech writing that will remain strong will require the writer to have degrees in other subjects as well. In the past, some people have posted here that a lot of technical writing jobs opened up only because the electronic industries were expanding, and they couldn't get highly trained people fast enough. I now have to agree with that, despite the fact I'm one of the people who fit that category. I believe anyone who wants to remain in tech writing and doesn't have a significant amount of formal training in a technical field will have
to go back to school and get it. That's what I'm doing. Just hope I'm not too old yet. Time to hit the Grecian Formula, I guess. Maybe I'll start looking into rogaine and botox. :-)
--- On Mon, 1/25/10, Dan <dangarza1 -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:
> From: Dan <dangarza1 -at- comcast -dot- net>
> Subject: RE: how bad is the job market?
> To: "'Robert Lauriston'" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>, "'TECHWR-L Writing'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Monday, January 25, 2010, 8:24 PM
> I believe tech writing is dead, we
> need a paradigm shift to the next
> evolutionary field, whatever that is.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+dangarza1=comcast -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+dangarza1=comcast -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
> On Behalf
> Of Robert Lauriston
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 7:01 PM
> To: TECHWR-L Writing
> Subject: how bad is the job market?
>
> How bad is the job market? There's an ad on Craigalist
> today for an
> entry-level tech writer, $10-15 an hour depending on
> experience.
>
> In San Francisco, $10 an hour is 21 cents above minimum
> wage.
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