The Job Outlook for Technical Writers
By Maria Trombly, The SDP Documentor, Dec. 1999

According to four industry experts who participated in a recent SDP panel, the job outlook for technical writers is bright.

Laura Horlitz from nSight, Rob Otoka from Microtech Professionals, Caleb Stewart from Randolph Associates and Carol Szatowski, President/CEO of Clear Point Consultants were the four experts who spoke on September 15 at The MathWorks in Natick. They discussed trends in the job market and changes in the industry, electronic resume submissions, and breaking into the market for the first time.

The Market Trends

"Things are booming right now," said Otoka, a technical recruiter. According to data gathered by Microtech Professionals, there has been an increase in contract openings. There has also been an increase in demand for HTML knowledge and related tools, Otoka said. These include RoboHTML, HomeSite for HTML and Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator.

FrameMaker and Microsoft Word stayed strong.

"Everything else lost ground," he added.

The other trend he noticed was an increase in jobs in networking oriented companies, but future growth may depend on legislation. "As the influence of the Internet expands," he said, "the need for additional infrastructure, e-commerce possibilities and other new projects has fueled a lot of the growth in the area of access regulation, for example, whether smaller companies should get access to MediaOne's capabilities. Right now, they can't."

Meanwhile, decreases occurred in the financial and database related companies. "The mergers in the financial industry took their toll," he said. "We did have less hiring in that area. There was a little less hiring in database systems, but a lot of that had to do with preparedness for the Y2K situation."

One unexpected increase was in manufacturing, where job opportunities began to rise slightly. "You can get a PC now for a fraction of what I paid for it," he said. "So the sector really rebounded. Semiconductor testing companies, chip makers. Engineering remained consistent."

Jobs in the medical sector are also increasing, Otaka noted. "There's more concern now about health care reform." he said. "There's been a lot of companies coming out with databases related to cutting healthcare costs."

To help make predictions for the future. Otoka pulled out a Magic 8 ball. Squinting into it, he pronounced that FraineMaker and Microsoft Word will remain important tools, with HTML and XML-based help on the increase. He predicted that Windows online help will probably wither away within five years.

"Overall, the new millennium is going to bring a shift to the profession." he said. He advised technical writers to become familiar and versed w.-ith a variety of different mediums and user interface engineering and XML and HTML tools. He also cautioned the audience not to ignore the fact that five million Palm Pilots have already been sold-and that there will be a need for professionals who can explain the product to consumers.

The Internet Impact

Clear Point's Carol Szatowski took the discussion of the Internet's impact on the technical documentation profession even further.

"Between the business-to-business that's going to be transacted over the Web and the consumer products, there's going to be a huge impact on information design," she said. "Just the business-to-business commerce is going to be a $300 billion market by 2003."

She said that documentation professionals should become aware of how their companies will have to change to address this new reality, to understand the company's business goals and to learn how the documentation will help those goals.

Business object technology is another changing area. No longer just reusable software components, the definition of objects will expand to allow tor relative ease of connectivity.

"It's an important technological concept to grasp if you're going to be doing any kind of documentation in the area," she said. This is a junction at which writers have to decide whether they will expand or contract their opportunities, she added. For example, many writers will have the opportunity to make a significant impact when it comes to creating centralized communication vehicles for their companies.

"The techwriter 2000 to me is an information designer, an analyst, a human factors specialist, a usability and assessment specialist, and a technology evaluator," she said. "And the challenge of the Web is not to be defined by your tasks, tools and deliverables. You can think big. You can see that the Web is your window of opportunity towards creating a new kind of job."

Designing a Resume

On a slightly different note, Caleb Stewart offered some useful advice about sending out resumes, mostly focusing on electronic submissions.

"An electronic version of your resume is preferable to a printed copy," he said. "When resumes are OCR [optical character recognition] scanned, errors are inevitably introduced. and most companies prefer to receive electronic copies."

He warned job applicants to use minimal formatting and to check their files for viruses before sending them out. Filenames should be kept to eight characters or less, with a three character extension. And the best title for the tile is not resume.doc. "We get dozens of resumes each week that say resume.doc," he said. "We recommend using your name so that people can recognize who it's from."

The applicant's name should be on every page of the resume and attachments. The resume should also include a list of tools, keywords and skills. "Try to include all the key words you can think of," he said.

However, he recommended against including help files, or asking readers to find the resume on a Web site.

He urged applicants not to obfuscate their talents and confuse automated searches with fancy titles like "knowledge designer" when a simple "tech writer" will do.

Finally, he reminded the audience of the necessity of manual proofreading. "I certainly see a real increase in the amount of typos that we get from people." he said. "So sit back, and come up with a polished version of a resume. You can't unsend it."

Opportunities for Technical Writers

Laura Horlitz from n.Sight said that this was a good time to break into technical writing. "There's lots of opportunities, lots of employment, lots of good dollars," she said. "This is a really good time to be considering technical writing as a profession."

A good technical writer should be curious about how things work, should have a technical aptitude, should be organized, should have a solid understanding and command of the English language, should have an appreciation for the visual representation of infomiation, should be able to work collaboratively, and to enjoy a fast pace, constant change and deadlines.

There are two different tracks into technical writing, she said. There are those who start out in the sciences, math, engineering, or programming, and those who start in English, journalism, or teaching.

Before beginning the actual job search, she recommended that would-be technical writers network and research the field, attend professional meetings and read the literature. A certificate or a degree will also demonstrate a serious commitment to the profession.

Finally, when choosing that first job, there are a number of situations that a tech writer might walk into, some more favorable to beginners than others. "There are a few brave souls out there who hang out their single as independent consultants," she said. "Those folks are motivated and entrepreneurs and absolutely, you can go that route. But I think your first time out of the gate, you'll do better in a job in a department. You'll get the ongoing mentoring and support."