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.
#21684
For many technical writing companies the issue of how to manage all the associated 'non-writing' costs can be a sensitive area. Do I charge for every email? Every phone call? Where do you draw the line? What do you charge for, besides the document you produced?
#27261
How's Job Bank pairs creative talent with employment opportunities nationwide. Looking for a job? Search by location, job title or salary range to find your next career move. Hiring creatives? Plug in your requirements and contact information, and instantly reach qualified candidates.
#29341
How Do You Deal With a CEO Who Wants to Run the IT Department? 
A CEO is enamored with technology but doesn't understand the issues involved in implementing his time- and money-hungry IT ideas. What would you do to solve this problem?
Roberts, Becky. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Technology>Collaboration
#25806
How Do You Make the Student-to-Professional Transition? 
A summary of the 1998 panels, 'Transitioning from Student to Professional: What's in Your Future?' and 'To Ph.D. or Not to Ph.D? That Is the Question'.
Trich Kremer, Jennifer D. HFES (2000). Careers>Human Computer Interaction
#31826
How Do You Walk the Line Between Work and Home? Share Your Best Practices With ALA
At $4.14 a gallon in the United States, $5.29 a gallon in Canada, and $8.70 a gallon in the U.K., the price of gas is just one reason many web workers now commute from the bed to the basement as part of a conscious choice to work from home.
#14751
How Have You Advanced Your Career?
Three technical communication gurus answer the question, 'What single action or decision did more to advance your career than any other?'
Barker, Thomas, Janice Gelb and Donald E. Zimmerman. Intercom (2002). Careers>Advice>TC
#18991
I began as a traditional technical writer and editor in January 1961. Then a gradual evolution changed my worklife: I became a multiple-threat hybrid. My experience zig-zagged from writing proposals to professional acting to building technical resentations to educating myself in marketing communications and marketing to counseling others in strategically thinking how to better market their ideas. Today, I am the hybrid of the future: technical writer and editor/marcom specialist/strategic thinker/marketing counselor.
Gottlieb, Larry. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>TC>History
#27837
Conventional wisdom defines business success largely by company size; the steeper the growth curve, the better. But is this model appropriate for freelancers? Most freelancers in publishing work independently; the amount of work we can accept is limited by the number of hours we can work and how many pages we can edit, proofread, or index per hour. For this reason, if we cultivate too many clients, we’re forced to turn down projects we’d like to accept. On the other hand, few freelancers have arrangements for receiving regular, predictable assignments from clients.
Shore, Lys Ann. Editorial Freelancers Association (1995). Careers>Freelance>Management
#14831
How Papers Can Find and Retain Copy Editors
The American Copy Editors Society wondered what papers were doing to address this problem, whether editors felt that the academic community should do more to feed the pipeline, and what the industry was doing to encourage people to enter the field. The study was administered by copy editor Carrie Camillo of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. With the support of her paper and its editor, Tim McGuire, she produced a 33-page report that is the most comprehensive work available on the subject. This column is taken from Camillo’s report.
Glamann, Hank. ACES (2000). Careers>Editing>Journalism
#24799
How to Break into Marketing Communications
Many technical writers, editors, illustrators, graphic designers, managers, and others would like to break into technical marketing. But how to do it? This mini-workshop gives technical communicators some practical tips for making the transition without the requisite “experience required”. As an added bonus, it shows that marketing jobs in general pay more than similar ones held by traditional technical communicators.
Vaughan, Caroleen L. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Business Communication>Marketing
#18926
How To Break into Technical Writing
Whether you're attempting to become a technical writer at 21 or 41, the steps are the same. Statistics show that the best way to find a job is network, network, network. Go to association meetings, like STC, and talk to as many people as you can. Introduce yourself and tell them honestly what you want. Ask them a lot of questions about how they did it. Everyone started somewhere.
#25565
How to Build a Nonprofit for Your Community
This article details how mozdev.org built a nonprofit organization and shows you how to do the same for your community. I'll cover fundraising, obtaining legal advice, staffing, and more.
Boswell, David. O'Reilly and Associates (2004). Careers>Management>Legal
#19700
How to Conduct a Review Meeting
Although technical reviews of many draft user’s guides, references, and help systems occur through the black box (that is, the author sends out the material, and reviewers send it back marked up, without the two ever seeing one another), many technical communicators find that a personal meeting ultimately saves time and improves communication in the process of developing a technical communication product.
Carliner, Saul. Intercom (2003). Careers>Management>Editing
#31919
It's your main marketing tool -- and a sink for potentially endless tweaking and anxiety. Here's some advice from our experts on how to put together that all-important résumé/CV (and its frequent traveling companion, the cover letter).
#20439
So, you decide that you would like to create a portfolio. What do you do? Where do you start?
#25903
How to Create a Winning Tagline
The name of your company or consulting practice can offer prospects a clue into the work you do, which is especially necessary if it’s not readily understood, but if it bears your name, you’d better have a tagline to do the explaining.
Benun, Ilise. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Careers>Consulting>Writing
#29254
How to Deliver Bad News to Customers
In order to be effective in the usability business, you have to face the fact that you'll have to deliver bad news. You have to talk about what's not working. You might have to bruise egos and make your client uncomfortable.
Rhodes, John S. Apogee. Careers>Consulting>Usability>Collaboration
#27772
How to Find Clients Who Need White Papers
Freelancers often wonder where to find clients. What kind of companies need white papers written for them, anyway? Here's three simple questions that will tell you the answer.
Graham, Gordon. WhitePaperSource (2006). Careers>Freelance>Writing>White Papers
#30643
How to Find Technical Writing Jobs
There are some key differences between looking for publishing jobs and looking for technical writing jobs.
Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing
#27384
How to Find Your Executive Usability Champion
Discusses making usability routine throughout your organization.
Weinschenk, Susan and Jerome Nadel. Human Factors International (2006). Careers>Usability>Collaboration>Workplace
#15141
Suggests ways to get a good job by cutting production time and cost on user manuals while increasing access and usability.
Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2000). Careers>Documentation>TC
#31930
The process leading up to your first faculty job is almost guaranteed to be a nerve-racking ordeal. Many applicants don't know how to make a good first impression. It is common--and reasonable--to question whether you have the right set of skills and credentials for a particular faculty job. Whether at a large research-intensive university on the West Coast or a small teaching college in New England, the recruitment process is much the same all across the country.
Fazekas, Andrew. Science (2006). Careers>Interviewing>Academic
#10076
How To Get Started As A Copywriter Or Business Writer
If you only read one book, then go for Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy. An old book (in adland time) -- published in 1983. But the ghastly advertising mistakes it warns about (and smiles about) continue to this very minute. Each new tribe of copywriting recruits trips over the same stones.
Heath, Jim. Viacorp (2000). Careers>Writing>Workplace
#25892
How to Grow as a Graphic Designer
Catherine Fishel examines the philosophical foundations on which every creative business is based.
Fishel, Catherine. Graphics.com (2005). Careers>Graphic Design
#12925
Each year during May and June we get hundreds of calls, letters and emails from young graduates who would like to work for Showker Graphic Arts & Design or any of the Graphic Design Network web sites. This year, since we had a specific letter from a potential employer, we thought it would be cool to show graduates how we approach reviewing candidates for employment.
Showker, Fred. Design, Typography and Graphics (2001). Careers>Management>Graphic Design
