Where have all the jobs gone?

It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago we had a technical writer shortage. I was turning down contracts because I didn’t have enough qualified writers to take on all those new projects. Just about every technical writer I knew was fully employed at that time. Fast-forward 6 months and it’s a whole new scenario.

My inbox is being flooded every day with CVs from out of work writers, but there are just no jobs available for 95% of them. So what does that 5% have that makes them stand apart from the technical writing crowd?

Let’s start by identifying the technical writers who are NOT in the 5%: Those who have the words “COBOL” or “FORTRAN” as the first and last programming languages on their CVs; those who have only written end-user documentation; and lastly, those journalism and English majors who have no technical background whatsoever and took a 3 month technical writing course, but keep sending me their CVs anyway.

New start-ups are on the cutting edge of new technology and developments and larger, established companies are all racing to catch up. The technical writers they look to employ have to be proficient in today’s web platforms and programming languages, like Ruby on Rails, Apps, Mobile, HTML5, scripting, etc. In hardware, they have to understand the latest developments, be able to create effective 3D drawings and deliver their content on tablets and mobile.

Recently, while renegotiatiing a contract, the customer was nickel-and-diming me over the price of one of the writers who had done a miraculous job for them under impossible deadlines. While they were busy negotiating, I had to take the writer off the job for 3 days, and put someone cheaper into the position. Oh, did I mention this was 5 days before the deadline of a 3-month contract?

Yes, that's right. I had to put in someone who didn't know the product, didn't know the people, and was an inferior writer, because they insisted on a lower price – the week of the deadline. Needless to say, by the third day they were begging for the original writer. But guess what? The day after the deadline they were back arguing about the price and number of hours needed for the next job.

The writer just laughed and told me an even better story from a former employer. The company had registered her and another person to a 2-day seminar in San Diego. They were not going to be able to return her to Israel before the Sabbath because Wednesday night in San Diego is halfway through Thursday in Israel. For an entire week, 5 VPs and C-level managers were arguing about whether they would pay her per-diem for the Friday and Saturday she would have to stay over. She wasn't even asking for a hotel; she wanted to stay with friends. After a week of arguing over $80 in per-diem, they decided to cancel her participation in the conference, which they had decided was critical for lead generation, and just send the other person who agreed to travel on the weekend. The clincher? The airline ticket would have been $500 cheaper if she stayed over the Saturday. So 10 e-mails between 5 VPs for 1 week where they unanimously agreed that saving $400 was a bad idea.

WHAT?

It is not always easy to get motivated to get to a class or teach yourself a new technical writing tool. But it’s so important to stay fresh and current with the latest trends and breakthroughs. I try and spend one hour of each day reading and exploring new technologies. What do you do to ensure you stay in front of the eight ball? There are some great resources for e-learning, networking, and sharing technical writing and doc management knowledge that you can take advantage of without ever leaving your desk.

Here are some that I recommend:

• TECHWR-L
• The Content Wrangler
• Lynda.com
• VTC.com
• Various Linked-in groups including: Documentation and Technical Writing Management, Technical Writer of Writers, and ITW
• Author-it

I’m curious to know which other online learning sites you utilize. Leave me a comment below and let me know, I’ll be sure to check them out.

And along these same lines, i.e. in the interest of furthering our individual skills and our collective profession, we are in the process of gathering as many technical writers in Israel as we can find to form a new community of documentation managers, technical writers and everyone in between. I’m envisioning a not-for-profit group setting where we learn from industry leaders, share knowledge and best practices, and be exposed to new trends in the industry.