While the field of usability has existed for decades, the number and quality of careers in the field have greatly improved in the last 10-15 years. The long-term prognosis for the industry is good: there are constant opportunities in almost every industry since new products and technology come out all the time, in usability as well as user-centered design, interaction design and user experience design.
#30453
That Monster called Free Pitch
No matter what you call it, Spec Work, Free Pitch, etc the concept is the same. I'll get a handful of designers or studios to come up with a handful of concepts for my website, and the winner gets my business. Great concept? No! There are no winners here.
Burke, Miles. MilesBurke.com.au (2007). Careers>Freelance>Graphic Design>Contracts
#20153
That's Not In My Job Description! 
Small companies ask writers to handle an incredible range of tasks, requiring writers to dynamically manage their work load. This paper reviews scheduling guidelines and tips for survival and success.
Smith, Elizabeth Walker. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Writing>Planning>Technical Writing
#21367
The Indie life: Talking with Louis Rosenfeld
Think you'd like to set up shop as an independent information architecture consultant? Polar Bear book co-author Louis Rosenfeld has a few words of advice: it's not your IA skills that are necessarily the most important ones.
Nattress, Paul. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Careers>Freelance>Information Design
#23776
The Technical Communicator as Strategic Consulting Partner
Service-based. Needs-based. Relationship-based. Trust-based. These are the types of relationships that can exist between you and your clients. As a technical communicator, you will likely have relationships at the service and need-based levels, perhaps even at the relationship-based level. To truly have bottom line impact for your client, however, you need to have that trust-based relationship. How do you get to the trust-based level? This paper describes the role of the technical communicator as strategic consulting partner, a trust-based relationship for sure, and provides some practical approaches to getting there.
Currie, Cynthia C. and Kristen J. Erickson. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Consulting
#23349
For starters, many people working on large Web sites hold more than one of these identities or have held more than one of these roles in their career to date, so it makes little sense to limit one's goals to one of these titles.
Kelleher, Liz Hines. ADE Bulletin (2001). Careers>Web Design>Writing>Technical Writing
#29696
The Transformation of a Technical Communicator
Transformation is part of human evolution, so it is natural that STC is transforming itself through the 'Transformation Initiative.' Similarly, STC members as technical communicators need to transform themselves, or they will no longer be viable in a changing and evolving world. Part of STC's method for the Transformation Initiative, to rely upon internal communities to expedite solutions, is the same method that technical communicators can use to re-create their own niches or move to others. Individual technical communicators are hosts within themselves to a myriad of talents and strengths, with each talent and strength serving as a community. Individually, then, communicators should apply all of their personal communities to themselves.
Ball, Valerie M. STC Proceedings (2005). Careers>TC>Community Building>STC
#20442
The Web Portfolio Handbook: Preface 
Welcome to The Web Portfolio Handbook. The goal of this book is to help students and professionals envision, plan, design, and create academic or professional portfolios using Web technologies. Web portfolios hold tremendous promise as a pedagogical tool and learning medium. But because web portfolios—for that matter, even portfolios in general—are a relatively recent development, this preface will not only introduce how this book works, but provide a conceptual framework for using web portfolios in the classroom.
Kimball, Miles A. Murray State University (2002). Careers>Portfolios
#23464
There Goes the Productivity...
The productivity factor is defined as the relation between the daily amount of working time spent on paid projects and the total amount of working hours. The difference is the nonproductivity in a technical writer’s life.
Thiele, Ulrich. TC-FORUM (1998). Careers>TC
#26059
These Numbers Tell Many a Tale
While there are a few obvious anomalies in the numbers, the average salary of people with less than a year's experience being more than that of 1-2 years range, mostly the numbers appear to be credible.
Akkunoor, Pradeep. Indus (2005). Careers>Salaries>Regional>India
#20250
Web designers do not live by GIFs alone. In this new series, Kramer explains how to set up your business, prepare for projects, maintain profitability, and grow your firm. It all starts with a solid business plan.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2000). Careers>Management>Web Design
#25526
This Web Business IV: Business Entity Options
You've mastered Photoshop, Flash, CSS, PHP, ASP, XHTML and JavaScript; studied usability, accessibility, and information architecture; and can fake your way through XML. But there's more to running a web business than that. Part Four of a continuing series.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2003). Careers>Management>Web Design
#24763
Three Mind Maps for the 1990's Technical Communicator
New ways of using organizational theory, communications techniques, and project life cycle concepts can empower the knowledge worker of the 1990's. Today's Technical Writer needs new strategies for increased productivity and profitability in order to remain in the mainstream. Mind mapping is discussed, and three illustrative examples receive a new spin. A workbook is provided for notetaking.
Doremus, Jean S. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>TC>History
#32049
Personally, the growing distress over the recession actually represents a lack of long-term thinking. Freelancing by default is less stable than the corporate world.
Contract Worker (2008). Careers>Freelance
#20680
Throwing the Bones to Certification
The more I think about certifications and the issue of 'specialist vs. generalist' I just have to wonder if it would be better to just get a bag of shiny new dice and start rolling one's own.
Berger, Jenny L. Creative Tech Writer, The (2003). Careers>Certification>Professionalism>Technical Writing
#19718
Have you done something halfway, hoping the effort would be enough to get you by? When it comes to getting organized, I’m guilty of the half-hearted effort. Let me be the first to tell you that halfway doesn’t cut it.
Book, Ruth. STC Central Iowa (2001). Careers>Workplace>Quality
#13583
Time Management: The Pickle Jar Theory
Time management theories come and go, and we’re glad when most of them leave. But this one caught our fancy.
Wright, Jeremy. List Apart, A (2002). Careers>Management
#31929
Curriculum vitae (CVs) tell the stories of the professional lives of university scientists, documenting their careers and showcasing their accomplishments. A well-crafted CV can help a job applicant land an interview--instead of having her materials shredded or buried in a file. The CV is no less important for scientists with tenure and no intention of changing jobs, because it is an essential part of any application for grants, awards, and promotions. It should, therefore, be kept up-to-date at every academic career stage.
Webb, Sarah. Science (2006). Careers>Resumes
#31332
Tips for Starting a Solo Career
Many years ago I was taken to lunch by two legislative analysts for a large law firm who figured that if I could do similar work on my own then maybe they could, too. As we talked, it became clear that what they were really looking for was a job-sharing venture that would give them more time to spend with their young children. When I asked them what they would do if two different clients needed something at the same time, they looked a bit stunned.
Steigman, Daria. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Careers>Freelance
#14643
Tips from the Tops in Our Field
Fugate presents advice from seasoned professions for new entrepreneurs in technical communication.
Fugate, Alice E. Intercom (2000). Careers>TC
#31922
Tooling Up: Conducting an Authentic Job Search
Scientists and engineers sometimes reveal how scary the job search feels to them when they talk to recruiters. Often this comes couched in complaints about "how the job market works." It's true that the job search does take us out of our comfort zones. But not all of that fear is justified.
Jensen, David G. Science (2006). Careers>Interviewing
#31921
Tooling Up: Résumé Rocket Science 2007
I may sound unorthodox when I say that you really don’t need to be all that concerned about writing the perfect CV or résumé. If you are interested in an industry job, you want your CV to open doors as it gets routed from person to person inside an organization. But you also want it to represent you accurately when you make a good networking connection.
Jensen, David G. Science (2007). Careers>Resumes
#26739
Tools for the World-Weary Knowledge Worker 
The project was a good test of the personal and portable knowledge worker tools that I have been recommending over the past four years, and a chance to reflect on how they all fit together. These are the items of hardware and software that proved most valuable to me.
Barth, Steve. KMworld (2006). Careers>Writing>Knowledge Management
#24242
Tools for Your Management Toolkit
Includes innovative, creative, and original management principles, tasks, techniques, and concepts for newly promoted managers, managers new to a company, and for seasoned managers who want to add to their management toolkit to help to ensure success or continued success in people and project management.
Storey, Sandy. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Management
#14145
Top Five Tips for Starting a New Job
This article offers five tips that can help you get off to a good start in your new job.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. TECHWR-L (2000). Careers>Advice>TC
#31731
As an interviewee, these actions might give you a competitive edge. As an interviewer, they might help set your standards on how you rate potential candidates.
O'Keefe, Karen. Writing Assistance (2006). Careers>Interviewing
