Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter
February/March 2010
| Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter February/March 2010 |
The downturn technical communications employment has suffered in recent years is systemic, and the field is not likely to recover any time soon, Andrew Davis, a technical communication recruiter, recently told a San Francisco STC meeting. Technical communicators need to recognize that the market has changed and begin evolving to adjust to the changes. Davis offered some tough advice and thoughtful strategies for those who would like to stay in the field.
Davis has often spoken at STC events, and is well-known for his candid advice and help for technical communicators. Davis has been tracking technical communications employment since the early 1990s and knows the field both as a working technical communicator, and as a recruiter with many contacts in the industry. In 1995 he launched his recruiting firm, Synergistech Communications. Prior to that, he was a technical writer of system administration and software developer documentation. In the early 1990s he was president of the San Francisco Chapter of STC.
Davis opened his talk with a quote from Charles Darwin: "It's not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
Davis suggests that we are in a Darwinian moment, when only those who can read the environment correctly and who can adapt will survive.
Many things have brought us to our current situation, he says. Among them he lists globalization, industry consolidation, hosted software, a shrinking economy, impatient customers, and the increasingly lean, 'do-more-with-less' companies that have become the norm.
Davis said that the demand for technical communicators is way down from earlier levels, but the talent pool remains large, which has driven down compensation levels for the opportunities that remain.
But there are also problems with how technical communication has come to be viewed. Davis says "A growing number of high-tech industry hiring managers regard technical communication as blue-collar work--necessary but not worth rewarding." Worse, the attitude is reinforced by customers who, in today's brutal economy, have become fixated on initial costs, and who fail to see the value of paying for good documentation.
The question of return on investment has long proved problematic for technical communicators, but the issue has become more serious with the economic downturn. For a time technical communicators could argue that good documentation made products more competitive, and that they were saving companies money by reducing the need for customer support calls. Davis says that such arguments are no longer sufficient. He argues that from here on, to stay employable technical communicators must actually produce profits for their employers. If you can't clearly show how your skills earn a company more than it costs to hire you, he says, "You’re toast."
Davis advises technical communicators to try to look at these facts objectively, and ask themselves, "As a purveyor of expensive and increasingly unvalued services, what should I do?"
When selecting a course of action, he cautions against chasing hot trends in the field such as structured authoring, DITA, usability/user experience work, content management, agile development, wikis, and social networking -- unless you can clearly see how your new skills will help generate sustained financial advantages for employers or clients. The "latest-thing" will soon grow old, and if the profitability isn't there, the jobs won't be either.
Davis also sees little future for publications managers who, he says, are likely to be let go as soon as higher management determines that their team members are capable of producing their deliverables on their own.
In the near term, Davis sees a continued demand for skilled Application Program Interface (API) writers. He says that API documentation can't be skimped because to do so would place an endue burden on expensive engineers and programmers, and it can't be safely offshored because of lax intellectual law and enforcement abroad. In the long term, Davis says, he expects that intellectual property laws will modernize and offshore skills will improve, and API writing in the U.S. will then also decline.
Davis see hope for individuals with extensive engineering backgrounds and solid interpersonal skills. They may find a lucrative future as liaisons to the developer-community, helping to put a "company's best foot forward to this crucial group of collaborators" and "representing their product suggestions (bug fixes, enhancement requests, etc) to the company's senior technical management."
Davis also recommends finding work outside the computer industry. There could be a future for those who identify an underserved audience in prosperous industry with good long-term prospects, possibly healthcare, medical devices, or clean tech.
If you are interested in knowing more, a great deal of information is available on the Synergistech website. A full outline of his talk with speaker's notes can be found at http://www.synergistech.com/images/What's-Next.doc.
Patrick Lufkin is an STC Associate Fellow, Chair of the Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship for Technical Communication, and was co-manager of the 2009 Northern California Technical Communication Competition.