atw: There IS life after tech writing

Thanks for your sharing Mary
 
I saw the writing on the wall quite a few years ago, when it became apparent
that there was no career as such in this industry and that we almost always
work junior to some control freak who knows nothing about the job.  I made
several abortive attempts to leave the industry before my latest move to
Tasmania.  While I was working in Melbourne, I had been clearly the oldest
in the company for many years, and the future was obvious.  Queensland had a
lot more older workers, but I was distressed to find how abused they were
(men and women, contract and permanent) - the older you are the more
desperate you are supposed to be to hold on to your job, so the more abuse
you will take at the hands of the juvenile nincompoops who have the
unenviable job of managing their elders and betters.  
 
I started retraining for animal naturopathy, only to have the college fold
in inglorious circumstances, and my training to date being of no value for
RPLs.  So I am now training for human homeopathy.  Apart from the fact that
I am genuinely interested, I cast my eye around for jobs where age/gender
would be an advantage.  For age to be an asset, the job has to have the word
"practice" in it.  You are allowed to be an old doctor, or vet, or lawyer,
or accountant.  And I could see myself at 80 with someone's sick cat on my
lap.  
 
However I found it too hard to do a job that takes too much out of me in the
first place, and then study in what little time and brain space I had left.
 
When I made the jump to Tasmania, it was with the knowledge that there would
be very little chance of me sustaining my BA/TW/Training contracting.
Curiously, I have sustained this kind of work, only on my terms - part-time
work from home, self managing, so I can more realistically study to do
something else as well.  Since I have been here I have written and edited
for a publishing company part time, spent several months launching a
magazine, run a movie night for "Movies that Make a Difference",  and am now
doing surprisingly well with the much hated and reviled MLM for a good
product (on the logic that I need to make big money before retirement age).
I have been going to trade shows, first for the magazine and now for the MLM
product, and enjoy being out there with people.  To cap that off, I live in
a glorious spot in the bush 10 minutes from the centre of Hobart - so very
little commuting.
 
AND I have been having FUN!!!!  I had forgotten what that was.  I have
started a women's 500/Canasta night where we laugh a lot, and regularly walk
my dog with a dog walking group where we laugh a lot.  I am no longer
exhausted all the time, my brain has space for other learning and my
emotions have space for Friday nights at the pub with the locals - yep,
there are pubs with locals here!
 
Christine


   _____  

From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of MHT
Sent: Thursday, 21 December 2006 6:58 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: meltdowns, inspiration and motivation


I can certainly understand and sympathize with Steve’s recent meltdown, as I
struggle to create a mantra of the  trite and tired phrase; “When one door
closes, another door opens”, 
 
At a recent check up in which I had to barter with my MD to forgo all
required labs tests because I have no medical coverage and could barely
afford the cost of the scaled down check-up required to continue the
prescriptions for which I pay the equivalent of a brand new, upscale car
payment each month (we are too rabid about faux democracy to consider
communistic socialized medicine in the USofA), my MD, who is also aware of
employment  <opportunities> for punters in general and older women in
particular, recommend that I check out HYPERLINK
"http://www.despair.com/"www.despair.com. (Okay, take a breath now).  The
more direct link would be HYPERLINK
"http://www.despair.com/viewall.html"http://www.despair.com/viewall.html.
 
So in the spirit of despair.com, I have reframed my mindlessly simplistic,
optimistic mantra to: “When one door closes, a dozen more get slammed in you
face”. 
 
I invite you all to participate with your own witty de-motivators and give
voice to the rise of the creation of the multi-billion dollar de-motivator
industry, on whom the success of the multi-billion dollar motivation
industry was not lost (give a cheer for clever marketing and private
enterprise). 
 
And while I am on a petulant roll, having spent the last six months busting
my act in a full time contract that required more than 40 hours a week and
only paid straight time (and required team meetings that were unpaid and off
the clock altogether) and refused to offer medical coverage; a job which I
supplemented with another a part time contract so that I could afford to
make the 100 miles per day round trip to the full time contract, only to
have my full time contract abruptly discontinued when younger punter of the
male persuasion,  newly hired and new to the position of management,
strutted onto the finely tuned team and marked his territory by dumping all
of the older women contractors - what should I chance to run across as I
once again ramp up for the job hunt but the message below, posted on a local
“professional tech writer” forum, name withheld to protect the incompetent
(exhale now).  One can only pause in utter amazement at how an individual
who has inadvertently admitted to a complete lack of ability, expertise (and
questionable education and background), managed to land a job that requires
all of the above. And notwithstanding the collection of glowing letters of
reference and accolades that I have collected like baseball cards over the
years, whom do I sleep with to get the same consideration?  Here is the a
fore mentioned, inspirational post:
 
Hello,
 
My tech writer position at my company is new, so I am responsible for
creating templates for various types of documentation. (There are no
existing company standards or samples for me to follow.) While I have
experience working with a variety of documents, I do not have experience
with every single type of documentation out there. So, in some cases, I am
not quite sure what elements to include or rules/guidelines I should adhere
to for a specific document. 
 
I've got several resources for grammar and style, but I have not come across
any good resources that address specific content questions, so I was hoping
you could recommend some good resources to use for this type of information.
Below is a list of the questions I have regarding the various types of
documents that I need to develop. 
 
1) IT Production and Operations manual - What are the main categories that
should be addressed in a standard IT Production and Operations manual?
 
2) Forms - Are there guidelines for form usability and layout?
 
3) Templates in general - Are there guidelines for what to include and what
not to include in a template? For example, are you supposed to provide a
text explanation of how to fill out the content for every style heading?
(I've seen some templates that are blank and some provide the explanations.)
Also, how do you deal with users that want a template created, but don't
know how to use the style sheets, so they end up messing up the formatting.
(I am not a trainer and struggle with the dilemma of whether or not I am
responsible for teaching someone how to use a tool that they should already
know, could use the online help, or should get specialized training for.)
 
I have used the internet to search for a lot of this information, but
haven't had much success, so I thought I would ask the experts. 
 
MN Mary 


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