atw: Re: Technical Writing for Retirees!

  • From: Chris Virtue <cvlists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 08:38:22 +1100

Yeah, try telling Sunny that!

bja wrote:
LOL.
I have to admire someone who says you are too old, don't bother, it's a tough profession, people burn out, why would you even want to try etc, and then says, but if you want to work for me, tell me your area of expertise (Christine is looking for royalty-based authors for some TAFE books she needs to write). I think he already told you that Christine. He is an ex maths/physics teacher with only a couple of indexes under his belt.
Good luck to you both.
Cheers,
Bruce

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*From:* austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Christine Kent
*Sent:* Sunday, 2 December 2007 12:27 AM
*To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* atw: Re: Technical Writing for Retirees!

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. 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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