Re: % of time technical writers spend on core tasks?

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

Wow, this is almost like some of the job requests I have had lately.

They have requirements like formatting, using HTML, UI design, etc.   I 
tried to explain to the recruiter, who obviously didn't have a clue what a 
technical writer does, that each of these things vary so much from job to 
job and day to day that it is extremely hard to put a figure on it. I have 
done them for 20 years. I can't say I did each one every day for 20 years. 
Some may only have been a dozen times in twenty years.

He wanted information like:
- How many years formatting?
- How many years using Excel?
- How many years diagramming?
- Ability to write technical documents and end-user documentation
- How many years using Visio?
- How many years creating PDFs?
- How many years of Office Experience?
- How many years of MS Office - Expert Level?  -- OK, so does the Office 
Experience above mean Microsoft Office or sitting in a building at a desk?


But he really wanted to know how much time I had actually spend on each type 
of task. It wasn't good enough I have done 20 plus years of technical 
writing. How much of that was formatting? How much was using Excel? How much 
was creating and working on diagrams? How much was creating PDFs?

Well, you know what, on a previous project, I spent an hour to 3 hours doing 
PDFs, as sometimes they would not come out right, or the review of the PDF 
would reveal something that had to be fixed and then a new PDF made. That 
would be at the end of maybe 3 months or more of writing. So in 3 years, is 
that 3 years of creating PDFs, or about 12 hours (or a day and a half) 
experience in creating PDFs?

Another every book I made about every month was converted into PDF, but it 
was done as part of the publishing program that put it online. So I didn't 
even use Acrobat to create them, but I did create them. Or maybe I didn't? 
Do I get credit?

It is a lot like asking a carpenter how much experience he has using a 
certain type of saw. You know, he may have used one since 1980, but maybe he 
only uses it 5 times a year and only a day at a time. He may well do that 
better than anyone else, has done it more than anyone else, but the 
requirement to find how much time he has done it is ridiculous.

I've had jobs where 80% was formatting, while on others the formatting was 
something like half of a percent. Some of these were where use of HTML was 
60% and others where it was 1%. Yet I have used HTML since 1995, but how 
many years of it do I have?

I think you will find each job is different. In each job, I do what is 
required on that job, which might be expertise in formatting or in HTML or 
in RoboHelp or whatever. I have done projects like the others where I spend 
the first week doing one task constantly, then never touch that for the next 
6 months. How do you gauge the percentage of something like that?

If you are a software technical writer, then learning that software is a 
core task. If you are talking software like learning Word or FrameMaker that 
you need to know to do your job, then that isn't a core task, that is 
something you are supposed to already know. Your core task is creating a 
publication. However, many think it is typing, and that is why many view us 
as no more than glorified secretaries.


Writing - 10% to 80%
Research - 10% to 90%
Formatting - 1% to 80%
Publishing - 1% to 90%
Meetings - 1% to 50%
Email - 25% to 75%
Chasing reviewers - 1% to 30%
Using product being documented - 0% to 50%
Doing artwork - 5% to 40%
Guiding/mentoring others - 0% to 75%

Yes, it can be that varied.

It isn't like working on an assembly line.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ryan -dot- minaker -at- ca -dot- pwc -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 10:08 AM
Subject: % of time technical writers spend on core tasks?