atw: Re: Technical Writing for Retirees!
- From: "Christine Kent" <christine_kent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 00:27:15 +1100
Oh, Martin
Why on earth would you imagine that you could move into tech writing at your
age?
Bluntly, you're too old - I am older than you so I am allowed to say that.
Had you been a TW until now, at your age, you would be moving out of tech
writing. Tech writing is extraordinarily demanding and the industry is as
ageist as everywhere else in corporate. There is nothing about it that is
suitable for a mature age person. Roles are mostly too low in the corporate
hierarchy, and the whole idea of mature age people voluntarily becoming
juniors is ludicrous.
In addition, the level of brain work is extreme, and the level of brain
stress has destroyed many younger people. If you hang around this list for
long enough, you will see good contributors becoming irrational, ranting and
then quitting the industry and the list. It's not for the faint hearted.
The kinds of jobs that old TWs often end up doing on the side from home are
indexing (as you have discovered), and potentially editing. Both require a
meticulousness and a natural talent that few people have, and perhaps as
importantly, an understanding of writing to ensure that the editing or
indexing is appropriate to the piece of writing. There is nothing worse for
a writer than an editor picking up trivia and missing the important stuff.
Again this is not for amateurs. There is also writing school books on a
royalty basis, but you have to be lucky to find royalty work that actually
pays enough to make it worthwhile. I can give you a referral for that, if
you tell me what your area of expertise is.
I wonder if you are the victim of discrimination against the mature age in
your own industry and are trying to find an industry where age is an
advantage? If that is the case, believe me, this is not it!
ck
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of martin lindsay
Sent: Saturday, 1 December 2007 8:13 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Technical Writing for Retirees!
Maybe this is a slightly unusual request on this forum, however I'd be
interested in your views nonetheless if you can be bothered reading this.
I'm a babybooming (56 year-old) maths/physics teacher looking at
transitioning to retirement over the next few years. I've been looking at
various part-time jobs that I might take up in my retirement (not all of us
will be playing golf every day ...), jobs that I believe I can do that are
transferable from my current one, ie education/communication. I came across
one a few months ago quite by accident: back-of-book indexing. I don't know
whether you are familiar with it and its association (ANZSI):
<http://www.aussi.org/index.html> http://www.aussi.org/index.html. Anyhow,
I've since written a few indexes voluntarily for a publisher, and I hope to
build up this occasional business over the next few years before I retire.
However, I don't feel there is a large market out there for freelance
indexers, so I am still looking for other ideas to support the odd indexing
job. The secretary of ANZSI recently sent us some information on ASTC and
the Swinburne Uni course on technical writing. There appear to be some
similarities between ASTC and ANZSI, and it got me wondering whether the
idea technical writing as an occasional retirement job would be worth
pursuing given my 'advancing age' and background. My specific questions are
these:
. $66m Question. Can you suggest how a novice 56 year-old can pick up
work (voluntary or otherwise) in technical writing over the next few years,
or do I need to complete a further qualification like the one at SUT or
similar for starters to help me? I have completed educational studies up to
PhD level.
. Do employers outsource work who are working from home, or are most
technical writers employed in-house?
. Would it be best to improve my skills in programs like Adobe
Framemaker, Dreamweaver and RoboHelp or others (?) in the interim? I have
been teaching in an online environment for some years now so my computer
skills are reasonably good.
Any advice - blunt or otherwise - or people to contact for further
information would be most welcome.
Thanks again for reading this.
Martin
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