April/May 2005

Volume 45, Number 5

President's Corner

by Marc Lee, STCRMC President

One of the little-known features of chapter presidency is that you receive the emails that are mailed to info@stcrmc.org. Many that I have received are from people who are in the process of transforming or choosing careers, or are considering a career in technical communication. Their inquiries to 'info' request information and advice about whether they should make this decision or, having made it, how to secure that first job or a better job.

When I respond my inclination is to encourage people; 1) because I believe it can be a good decision for a certain type of person, 2) because I think that the people writing at least partly have already made up their minds and I don't want to discourage them, and 3) I just want to see people enter this profession.

Here's a typical response:
If you have the ability to learn and understand information, and to communicate it clearly and accurately, and actually like to do it, you might have the sort of mind that can enjoy and prosper in this industry. However, I do caution people that they must have a curiosity about technical subjects—how a telephone call works, how a browser works, how anything works from the inside. It is not enough to like to write or illustrate, though those things are important in themselves. I finally add that, as important as the first two traits are, you should also be willing to learn some technical skills such as building a database, writing html/Javascript from Notepad, programming a multimedia tool such as Flash or Authorware, operating one of the help creation tools at an advanced level, or coding a dynamic Webpage linking to a database. These basic skills are the connective tissue of our industry today and give you the ability to conceive and execute an information product on your own. This becomes useful when you are (in an attempt to advance yourself) working on a prototype of an idea of your own, persuading a manager about a concept, and so on. As you rise in the profession you may only be supervising people with those skills, but even there it really helps to be able to do it yourself. Of course, the skills I'm talking about would be over and above ability to use the basic desktop products such as Word, Excel and even Acrobat (the latter, a bit more than basic, of course).

It has occurred to me that it would be good for people making this inquiry to hear the opinions of more than one person, especially since the person in the president's role may be no more qualified to respond than dozens of other people in the chapter (that's the case currently to be sure). The chapter represents well over 1,000 years of cumulative experience in technical communication. Maybe these inquirers would profit from that reservoir of knowledge.

Therefore, I'm requesting that, if you're reading this, you're probably as qualified as I am or the next president is to answer this question. Maybe more so. I challenge/solicit you to respond with a one-two paragraph answer to this question of your own. Think how you would respond if you were in the position of president. If you choose to respond, state your honest opinion (in temperate language of course), even if you would not recommend the profession. Then when I receive a half-dozen or so, I'll ask our webstaff to post them (with names attached) in some corner of the chapter website—kind of like a blog. Then I can just refer the people looking to our chapter for career advice to a link rather than opining personally. It will be a much more well-rounded, balanced response than just hearing the advice of one person. I hope you take five or ten minutes and think how you'd respond. It will be a big help to potential technical communicators. Oh yes…just send your response to info@stcrmc.org.

Here's an interesting potential by-product: Putting your thoughts into words might even prove an interesting exercise in your own career navigation as well.

Finally…A Note On The Recent Election of Officers

The election of officers concluded on May 5, 2005. The incoming elected officers for 2005-2005 are:

President			Marella Colyvas
Vice-President		Deb Lockwood
Secretary		Kathy Ramsey
Treasurer			Jessica Betterly
Nominating Committee	Tammy Von Boening and Ron Arner

Congratulations to this excellent slate of new officers. They are extremely well-qualified to serve you and our community for the upcoming year. They will take office over the summer.

All the best,
Marc Lee
President STC RMC
info@stcrmc.org