Is this a golden age for permanent technical authors and technical writers? It may well be, even if it doesn’t feel it today.
We are probably at the point in the UK where the jobs market is *just* to the advantage of job-seekers, though salary rates have not been affected. Most likely, we’re also at a tipping point for the adoption of new tools and technologies, such as DITA XML, Web 2.0, AuthorIT and Flare. Significantly, these are technologies that can be adopted across the enterprise.
Then there’s the possibilities of an economic downturn in 2007/8 and more off-shoring of work in the future. If, in two years time, you’re doing the same things in the same way as today then you may well find you have been passed by.
So is this a golden age? We may be in a better place to tell in about two years’ time. What do you think?
I think we are seeing a convergence of help technologies and software architecture that means the technical author is more sought after than ever.
Particularly with Vista on the horizon, new windows products provide richer interfaces, that include alot more help text within the software itself. Devices such as the ribbon and super tooltips provide a high degree of integeration and cross over to helps.
Exciting times indeed.
I’ve just moved to the Netherlands and have taken my job with me: how many jobs can you do that with? At last, a great reason to be a lone writer!
I work at home across the internet (so no travel time or costs) and communicate via email, Skype and regular monthlyish visits to the office.
It helps that I am writing about software and that my employers are forward thinking. It took about three weeks to arrange, from them saying yes to me logging back on – and I only had 1.5 days off work, so very little time was lost because of it.
Setting up in Holland has been reasonably simple, once I’d got the technical side sorted out it was just a matter of getting registered at the local town hall. As I work for a UK-based company I don’t have to do anything about tax etc.
So far I have had few problems. I have enough contact with colleagues, still get the info I need as and when needed, am kept up to date with company business, and I am able to get on with my work without being hassled or distracted.
Is it a golden age for technical authors? I’d still say NO! as we are still too near the door when things go wrong, there are still plenty of employers who consider us to be just another ant in the farm and many still don’t care enough about the value of documentation.
But I can’t think of many jobs that you can you move abroad with so quickly and easily.
The Golden Age of Tech Writing? I would say not. Not from where I’m standing.
I was approached to quit my previous contract to take a contract in Brussels, which I did because I really wanted to work for that organisation. Just as my relocation was complete (at great personal expense) and shortly after my contract was renewed, it was cut. Why? Because they could.
Now I am stuck in a backwater with no other employers. Over the past four months I’ve applied for work in Ireland, Holland, Luxembourg and the UK. It doesn’t make financial sense to relocate again for a short term contract, and, although I’m happy to commute, my travel/accommodation expenses make it difficult to compete with local jobseekers.
Contract rates continue to be squeezed because there are too many writers chasing too few jobs and there seems to be no shortage of writers who are prepared to do a Senior Writer’s work for a Junior Writer’s pay. My contract rates haven’t increased above what they were eight years ago and are certainly insufficient to compensate for any prolonged periods out of work.
Many agencies no longer seem to bother to match candidates with their databases, instead they seem to prefer to take the easy option of advertising jobs so that jobseekers have to constantly watch job boards and email for fear of missing something.
If this is golden, then it looks mighty tarnished from here.