Guest Post: This is a guest post by Jack DeLand who has been active in the technical communication field since I started in the 1990s. It was originally posted to the Techwhirl mailing list.
… An Old Tech Writer Fades Away
I’m guessing that, given the estimated age of the readers of the list, you probably don’t remember me. I was a speaker and trainer back in the 90’s, when “online Help” as it was called then was roaring to life. We changed things. I gave away many hours of free advice, and I do believe I helped the movement grow. I had passion then, as I do now. Neil Perlin was a contemporary of mine back in the WinHelp days, and I’m sure you know him now. Scott Boggan, too, before he ascended to management. He was a craftsman, and so was I. Would you like to read my advice? Take what you like, and leave the rest; YMMV; yada-yada.
Here it is: Get out!
Get out of this trade if you expect recognition in a corporate environment. Next to training, you are in the most expendable employee group. You will never receive your full value; it just doesn’t happen. You know this at heart. It’s dispiriting, but it is a fact of life. A manager will cut three writers to save one good programmer. I’m sure that there are tech writers working for enlightened companies, where things are different. It won’t happen for most of you. Can you live with that? You get only one shot, so far as I can tell. Up to you.
But I love tech writing, you say. Well, bully, but what to do? Become a consultant and make some decent money. This does not mean become a “freelancer”. A freelancer works for an hourly wage. Never ever work for an hourly wage if you can possibly avoid it. (Sometimes, to land a good project, you will have to go through an “approved vendor”, i.e., job shop. I made $68.00 an hour doing this 20 years ago for an auto company. The agency billed me out at $95.00 an hour, which returned them $50,000 more than I saw that year. That’s why.)
As a consultant, you are selling the client the solution to a problem. How big is the problem? THAT is the question, and it all depends on the customer’s experience of pain, or rather pain level. At a level of 8 or better, throwing in a consultant begins to appeal. I made lots of cash on one project because I proposed a more costly but more comprehensive solution. I sold Help as a “meat and potatoes” system that could easily be added to with multimedia training or whatever. My total project hours were less than 200; I subcontracted the writing and did the Help system design and implementation myself. If I had bid at 40 or 50 bucks an hour, I would have given away a quarter million in profit. I did not. The client improved their order processing time immensely, and made a large ROI. Proof positive that good consulting is a win-win.
High-level, big-dollar consulting is highly competitive. An enlightened client knows who the key players are and their strengths. Get to be the best in your specialty. That is the essence of capitalism – the striving to become better drives improvement across the board. You may not become The Best (who can say what that is?), but you will become better. It was always my goal to become the best Help author in the world. Still trying.
There is a LOT of study involved in becoming a good consultant. I come at it from an internship in change management, in which we practiced transformative change in groups. Lots of role playing and strategizing, helping people realize their power. But you will never become great unless you find something that grabs you creatively, and that cannot be taught, only felt. Once you find that thing, whatever it is, ride that pony till it drops. [Note: No animals were harmed in the typing of this post.]
You may be trying for a certain effect in CSS, for example, that will lead you into JavaScript and then into … who knows? If it doesn’t feed your innards, then that’s not IT. If you find yourself coming up with more and more new solutions and clever ideas as you go and you never want to stop because it’s all coming to you in a rush, then that’s IT. I have been involved in tech writing of one sort or another for decades, and I learned for myself that the old adage is true: do what you love and the money will follow. Also, network like crazy. And most importantly: give it away. I never succeeded so well as when I gave away knowledge for free.
If you’re wondering what’s next for me, I am developing a site to be called www.howtoreadpoe.com, but am using my sandbox for prototyping now: www.jackdeland.com. Anyone with an interest in Edgar Allan Poe is highly encouraged to drop by. It has images and texts of some rare manuscripts, direct from some of the top libraries in the country. Free.
No comments:
Post a Comment