Well, how did I get here?

Tom Johnson, a technical writer and author of the I’d Rather Be Writing blog, recently posted about how people get started in tech comm.

One of the classic stories that is told in our profession is how and why we got into technical writing. The story is usually one of unintended directions and decisions, in which someone initially intends to pursue one career, makes a series of adjusting decisions and course corrections, and finally ends up writing docs as a tech writer. Because so few people actually set out to become tech writers, the story is usually interesting to listen to.

Like many others, I backed into technical writing. So, for one of my initial posts, I thought I’d share my story.

All Roads Lead Back Home

My career has been shaped by recession cycles. I’ve faced three major rounds of layoffs over the years — in print publishing, around the bursting of the dot com bubble, and just after the crash of 2008. Each time I had to pivot and reinvent myself. I had no grand plan. I reacted to the economic crisis at the time and did what was necessary to survive it.

It wasn’t until I relaunched my career in tech comm in 2016 that everything came full circle, as if I’d planned it that way all along.

The Three Layoffs and My Pivots

Here are the different paths I took that led to what I’m doing now.

1. Print Publishing

I graduated college with a BA in English and started out as an editor and writer for various small publications. Unfortunately, print publishing was on the decline, and my first layoff was from a suburban newspaper group during the early ’90s recession.

My early career predated desktop publishing software. I learned how to do paste-up with scissors, an exacto knife, and glue.

 

The act of physically assembling a publication piece by piece like a puzzle gave me a fundamental understanding of desktop publishing and, eventually, web development.

2. The Dot Com Bubble

 

Around 1994 one of my cousins launched his own Internet Service Provider (ISP) called ThirdWave LLC. At that time I’d been underemployed for a couple of years after my first layoff, and he gave me the most valuable advice of my career: “Learn HTML because the Internet is going to be really big.”

So that’s what I did. I taught myself HTML markup by “viewing source” in the browser. I remember being so delighted that I could change an HTML tag, refresh the browser page, and see instant changes.

Pretty soon the help wanted ads were full of postings for people who knew HTML. Very few did back then. It was the only time in my career that I’ve been first in line and had my pick of jobs.

Ultimately I wound up at a software startup company that developed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and other projects, including a Java runtime engine that they patented. Along the way I learned CSS and Photoshop and took courses in Java, Visual Basic, and JavaScript. I designed product websites and wrote help documentation with RoboHelp.

This was my first foray into tech comm. Even though I didn’t pursue it at the time, it helped get my foot back in the door in 2016.

The startup company was acquired in 2000, and 9/11 happened a year later. In 2002 I faced another career-ending layoff and another recession that hit the tech sector hard.

3. The Crash of 2008

By 2002 I was a single mom of a toddler and had to be pragmatic about my next move. I tried freelancing as a web designer for a little while, but the space was overcrowded by the early aughts.

There was also a tangible lull in the industry before “Web 2.0” and social media. I’m sure if I did a Google search I could find numerous “The Internet is Dead, Long Live the Internet” thinkpieces between 2002 and 2005.

So, I gave up on web development. I returned to school for a paralegal certificate with a concentration in corporate and real estate law. Although this was a completely divergent career path, it provided me with plenty of soft skills that I use in tech comm.

Unfortunately I have a special talent for picking doomed industries! My third career-ending layoff happened just after the crash of 2008, which decimated both real estate and law.

The Aftermath

I was unsuccessful in finding full-time work and tried freelancing again. This time I returned to my roots in editing and writing.

This was during the rise of the content mill, a particularly dismal and demotivating era for writers and editors. I had to spend long hours just to make a living wage, and I got very good at writing or editing a blog post in 15 minutes so I could knock off at least four of them in an hour.

During this time I picked up web design again as a hobby. I took some WordPress development courses and learned Jekyll and Hugo. I loved it much more than my paying work, but I never dreamed I would be able to make a living at it again.

As miserable as I was, I gained writing and editing experience, which is of course valuable for technical writing and especially client-facing documentation.

There was no layoff this time around, but an unexpected opportunity that led me to where I am now.

The Tech Comm Relaunch

In late 2015 I stumbled on some tech writing blogs. I started to think that maybe tech comm would be a good fit.

Serendipity saved the day. Through a networking connection, I landed a full-time job as a tech writer at a small software company not far from my home — my first full-time position in years. Because I had just been studying the best practices in the industry, I was able to introduce structured authoring to the team, as well as MadCap Flare for producing help documentation.

I was with this company for three years until they were acquired by an investment group. Although there were no planned layoffs, the new owners made a lot of changes in a short time. I was nervous about what those changes (especially new hires) signified for an employee my age, so I started looking for another job.

I joined the company where I am now in early 2019. I have never regretted this decision and never looked back.

Home

In my current position as a Technical Content Manager I’m able to use every skill I’ve acquired over the past 30 years. The best part is that I get to grow within my job; there’s always some new skill to learn. It truly never gets old.

I view what I’m doing now as “full stack” technical writing, where one tech comm person directs the content, designs and manages the content vehicle (e.g., a help website), writes and/or edits documentation, and facilitates collaboration and workflow with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). At larger companies with larger teams, many of these tasks are split among staff members. I love being able to do them all!