1.       Your technical writer may have written a 500 page manual on how your product works but you sure don’t have time to read that beast. Why not ask the author directly? Your technical writer probably knows more about the product than anyone else at the company.

2.       Who is constantly interviewing marketing and upper management for the latest product definitions and behaviour? Not you.

3.       When Quality Assurance finds a bug they don’t cross-check your code, they check out the documentation. Guess who wrote the documentation.

4.       Does your product spec give little insight into the user interface? Your technical writer thinks like a user. They do not think like you. Trust me on this.

5.       Or maybe you have a really great idea for a product improvement but the thought of writing a proposal to the decision makers puts you off as much as writing an essay in English class did. Technical writers love writing essays. In fact, if they’re on-board with your idea you cannot find a better advocate.

Lyndsey Amott, in an article on her website, stresses that industry knowledge should not be a primary deciding factor when mulling over suitable candidates. Her top three must-haves are:

1. design a document that looks good both on paper and on-line
2. design a document that can be updated easily
3. write instructions that are easy to understand

She goes on to say that the proof of a good writer lies in the way they organize their thoughts and that inexperienced writers shouldn’t necessarily be dismissed.

Technical writing consultant Jean Weber makes some good points in this article. She agrees that the writing is more important than the software or technical expertise. She advises companies to look for problem-solvers who keep digging until they find all the answers. But they should be somebody tactful, not abrasive.

Employers are always concerned with costs and staying on budget. If you can relay the value of creating relevant content in a specific context and to a specific audience, you’re on the right track. Remember that as a technical writer you’re the bridge between subject matter experts and the stakeholders, the marketers, and the end-users. Without you, knowledge could not be channeled into capital gain. 

So, if you find your head on the chopping block, start thinking like your employer and ask yourself why they should keep you around. The answer could just save your neck.

Now what do you say once you’re sitting in the hot seat? Here are my top five tips for acing that tech-writing job interview:

  1. Tell your potential employer that even though you don’t know everything about their widgets right now, you love learning new things. In fact, it’s struggling through the learning process that enables you to communicate with their users.

2. Showcase professional pieces in your portfolio that not only show you’re a wiz in robohelp/framemaker, etc, but also show that you solved a problem and achieved a positive outcome for a real world client. If you don’t have these, volunteer to create them on spec for a non-profit organization.

3. Don’t sell yourself short when convincing your employer that writing matters. Make sure your employer knows that strong writing and editing is not just about juggling commas. It’s about organization, understanding your audience, usability, and ultimately creating a satisfying user experience.

4. Don’t be afraid to bring in some fresh ideas. Tell your potential employer about audio/visual/interactive elements that you think would enhance their traditional documentation. Show initiative.

5. Relax and be yourself. If you’re a geek who is passionate about technology, grammar, and the latest trends in communication, then it’ll come through in the interview. Remember that you’re trying to find the perfect fit for you.

In part 4, coming sometime next week, I’ll talk about salary negotiations. And if you missed them, be sure to catch up on part 1 and part 2 in this series.

So how do you rustle up some contacts in Vancouver, a city that has a reputation for being a tad on the chilly side?

Well, a great way to get started is to join the local West coast STC chapter. Volunteering for them is a great way to make some contacts, probably even more so that just showing up for meetings.

Sign up for T-Net direct, a weekly newsletter that tells you what BC technology events are happening around town. Go to events outside of your field, where you don’t expect to see a lot of other writers. That way you’ll be more unique and make more valuable connections than you would hanging out with other writers who are looking for work.

Let everyone know you’re looking for work, and if your cousin’s roommate’s girlfriend tells you her brother is a technical writer, ask for his contact info and set up an informational interview. Having some connection, no matter how distant, is always better than interviewing a complete stranger.

Most importantly, don’t network to find work. Network to be social and meet people. If you approach everybody as a possible job lead, they’ll smell the sleaze on you a mile away. Stay loose and have fun.

So how do you ace the tech-writing interview? That’ll be in part 3, coming this Friday.   

Going brain dead is all very well if you’re gluing hula skirts onto tiki dolls on an assembly line, but what about if you’re, say, an air traffic controller? This device could improve workplace safety (and cut down on all those WCB claims).

Looking at the design, though, I’d say they still have a long way to go before any employee consents to sporting this stylish headgear in comfort.

Image courtesy of BBC News

This website uses some flash elements and some fancy css coding and is basically geared towards technical writing employers as a way to showcase my work. I may expand it in the future to include other samples too.

For those who are interested, I designed it in Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I used FlashSpring Pro 2 to convert a Powerpoint to flash. It’s best viewed using the latest version of any browser with a resolution of 1024×768. It’s also a bit flashier than the portfolio on this blog, which includes everything, including the kitchen sink. 

So, without further ado, here is part 1, which will focus on job search engines. Sure, you’ll get 20% of jobs this way ( the other 80% you’ll find through the hidden job market), but it seems a good way to start. And after all, you might just might get lucky and beat the hordes of job seekers all vying for the same position…

Here are some job search engines tailored specifically to the high-tech industry in Vancouver:

And then of course there are the more generic search engines:

Craigslist, Eluta (I highly recommended this one), Monster, BC jobs, Workopolis, Working, Job Bank, and Hot Jobs.

For search terms, a simple boolean search (writer OR editor) normally does the trick, but you can get more specific if you want (technical communicator, information architect, etc.). There’s no perfect search term. So, start clicking and have fun checking out all those juicy (yet ephemeral) jobs out there!

In part 2, I’ll be discussing the interview – look for it later this week. 

Sometimes I’m having an off day and rush through an article that 700,000 people are going to read. Then, when it comes out, I look at it and think “I can’t believe this drivel got published. I really should have spent more time on this…” Or “Ultimate Frisbee in December? What the heck was I thinking?”  It’s a humbling experience.      

He advises us to model ourselves after Leonardo da Vinci, who believed that seven key elements allowed him to become one of the most incredible innovators of our time. Here they are:

1. Curiosita: An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.

2. Dimostrazione: A commitment to test knowledge through experience.

3. Sensazione: The continual refinement of the sense, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.

4. Sfumato (literally, “Going up in smoke”): A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox and uncertainty.

5. Arte/Scienza: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. Whole-brain thinking.

6. Corporalita: The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.

7. Connessione: A recognition of and an appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.   

 Okay, okay, this story seems too bizarre to be true, and so it is. This article was later determined to be a fake. I mean think about it – even if the office had it’s air conditioning turned up to the max (unlikely on a cold October day in New York), the corpse would have started emitting an offense odour after three days. The point of this fabricated article is, and I quote: “Don’t work too hard because nobody notices anyway.” And it sucks to be a proofreader!