1. The Road Not Often Taken … Alternate career paths for senior technical communicators George F. Hayhoe Tri-Doc 2005 Conference 8 April 2005

2. The road we’ll explore today  Careers past and present  Knowledge senior technical communicators need  Three examples of technical tracks

3. Careers past and present

4. The early years, 1  Who: Mostly male, mostly trained as scientists or engineers  What: Big publications departments in defense and aerospace companies  When: 1950s-1985 (Cold War/Space Race)  Where: Mostly in the U.S.  Why: Writing proposals, reports, and procedures

5. The early years, 2  Time-consuming process of handwritten drafts, typescripts, art work specs, editorial and SME reviews, typesetting, and excruciating revisions and corrections  Most publications produced by teams; well-defined career ladders  Lots of (to us) unfamiliar equipment and tools

6. The computer revolution, 1  Who: Increasingly female with backgrounds in the humanities  What: Computer hardware and software, and consumer electronics  When: 1985-1995  Where: Mostly in the U.S.  Why: Writing hardware and software user guides

7. The computer revolution, 2  Disappearance of secretaries and typing pools  Keyboard skills essential  Developing a comfort level with technology, up close and personal  The concept of desktop publishing

8. TC as cottage industry, 1  Who: 70% female (2002), most with backgrounds in the humanities  What: Computer hardware and software, and consumer electronics  When: 1995-present  Where: U.S., Europe, and Asia  Why: Writing help and Web sites; increasing use of multimedia

9. TC as cottage industry, 2  Everyone their own writer/editor/ designer/illustrator  Single ownership of projects  Little coordination between projects  Often literally cottage work

10. The problems we face  Salaries account for increasing percentage of cost of publishing  Relatively few with formal training in TC  Emphasis on tools  Corporate solutions: Offshoring Deprofessionalizing

11. Knowledge senior technical communicators need

12. Communication expertise  Few technical communicators with formal training  Extensive theory and research base  Experience with procedures but often little knowledge of other genres  Impact of single sourcing and shift away from hardware/software writing

13. Cognate expertise  Related fields such as instructional design, cognitive psychology, human factors, usability, typography, and design  Some formal knowledge of all  Specialization in one or two

14. Subject domain expertise  Increasing computer literacy  Greater mastery of computing and business processes needed to support more sophisticated users  Shift away from IT to other domains such as healthcare, finance, and security?

15. Management expertise  Estimation and time management  Budgeting, accounting, and market- ing  Leadership, motivation, and inter- personal dynamics/communication

16. Three examples of technical tracks

17. Information development and design  Production assistant  Information developer  Expert information developer  Information designer  Project manager S. Carliner. 2001. Emerging skills in technical communication: The information designer’s place in a new career path for technical communicators. Technical communication 48:156-175.

18. Single sourcing  Information designers  Information architects  Information technologists  Information analysts M. J. Albers. 2003. Single sourcing and the technical communication career path. Technical communication 50:335-343.

19. Knowledge creation  Help experts make tacit knowledge explicit  Help design teams reach consensus about product design  Create knowledge assets such as documents M. A. Hughes. 2002. Moving from information transfer to knowledge creation: A new value proposition for technical communicators. Technical communication 49:275-285.

20. Your turn  Questions  Discussion