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Gurudutt
Kamath
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Opportunities
for writing have grown tremendously in the past few years. Recently,
I visited the jobsite of one of India’s leading portals. There
were over 200 vacancies for writers. My guess is that half of these
were for content writers and say about 10 of them for technical
writers. Assuming that only 50 percent of these were current (remember
the Web always throws up all the results and not necessarily the
current ones), still there are a lot of jobs going for technical
writers. Imagine that there are 10 other such sites, so your total
goes up to 2000 (200 x10) vacancies for writers all over India.
Of course, we will not compare with the vacancies in the US. I think
on any given day, the number of such vacancies advertised would
be say 20,000 (2000 per site x 10 sites). Of course, in this case,
25 percent to 50 percent of the vacancies would be for technical
writers and another 50 percent for content writers.
I
recently went for a walk-in interview of an e-learning company in
Mumbai. My own estimate was that nearly 100-200 people must have
walked in. Of course, the requirement was minimal. Mainly, they
wanted graduates with knowledge of Microsoft Office. Tata Interactive
has been looking out aggressively for writers for the past few months.
The MSN site has their advertisements (disguised as editorial content)
popping up everywhere. I liked the twist about technical writers
making more money. Interestingly, they are using the term technical
writer and not content writer (perhaps the “Web” is still
a depressing word after the big burst).
In
such a scenario, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an e-mail
from someone whom I met years ago. She wanted to say “thank
you”, for initiating her into the writing field and today she
was doing instructional design! Every fortnight I receive such nice
mails. I am sure the count of technical writers inspired by me (as
in this case) must have crossed a hundred! Now, that I am writing
this column, I am sure it will go up to a 1,000 soon (though few
may actually acknowledge that a column has inspired them to join
this profession).
Technical
writing education
Recently,
someone passed me an enquiry for teaching technical writing. If
I am not mistaken it is from one of India’s leading software
education companies. I had already met people from this company
with my proposal three times in the last three years. I could never
do the seminar for them. But what surprised me is that they are
still looking out for someone to train their staff in technical
writing. After being in the software education industry for over
a decade, the company was still looking out for a trainer in technical
writing! Imagine NIIT advertising for trainers to teach their staff
Microsoft Word or Java! Or TCS advertising for trainers to teach
their staff programming. Apparently, like individuals, even giant
companies have blocks that they don’t know technical writing.
That technical writing requires extensive training and educational
qualification.
Biggest
frauds
Incidentally,
the write-up on fake writers has received the largest number of
responses (including from STC members from USA!). Thank you for
writing and telling me that you agreed with what I said in that
column. When I wrote it I was taking a risk! I was not sure whether
everyone would see it the way I did.
One
of the biggest frauds being perpetuated is that it is a must for
technical writers to know certain tools. If you do not know FrameMaker
you are not a technical writer! If you do not know RoboHelp you
don’t stand a chance as a technical writer! In the last couple
of years I have learnt three new packages, RoboHelp (WebHelp), InDesign,
and RoboDemo, on my own. I just had the attitude of “I Can
Learn!”
I
can learn
One
of the biggest stumbling blocks for technical writing is this feeling
that we do not have qualifications in technical writing. Also, the
word technical is another big stumbling block. How can I do “technical”
things, I am not technical! I want each one of you to remember just
three words—“I can learn”. That is all that is needed
to become a technical writer (assuming that you have the bare minimum
required to be a technical writer—knowledge of English, good
communication skills, both written and spoken, domain knowledge
and computer literacy). You need to be a writer first to become
a technical writer. If you have writing skills, then you can learn
technical writing skills, technical skills, programming languages,
databases, Web, etc. You can even learn writing. Of course, it helps
if you have the seed of technical writing in you. Similarly, you
can learn instructional design and content writing.
Web
library
You
can also learn from the Web. It is all there on the Web—writing,
technical writing, instructional design, content writing, etc. Quite
a large number of readers keep writing to me for the URL of the
free online textbook on technical writing. My guess is that none
of these readers will become technical writers! If you cannot find
a URL from the Web, how will you ever find the information you want
for technical writing. Technical writing is about finding information
and writing about it. If you want to be spoon fed, then join some
other field.
You
can learn. Learn how to do a search on Google. Learn how to find
information.
Incidentally,
all these columns are archived on the website of this paper. So,
if you joined in late, just check it out. You can do a search by
my name or by DocuMentor.
Gurudutt
Kamath is a technical writer based in Mumbai. E-mail: documentor@vsnl.com
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