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.
#14746
The Ideal Resume: Thorough, But User-Friendly 
Smith, a former resume writer for a professional resume-writing franchise, demonstrates ways to improve the usability of resumes.
Smith, Gary M. Intercom (2002). Careers>Resumes
#31668
IEEE Professional Communication Society: Job Announcements 
A collection of posts about current opportunities for professional and technical communicators.
#24409
Imagination->Innovation->Communication
As we face an uncertain tomorrow full of challenges for our profession and our world, we should consider what ways to identify opportunities, what emerging trends will affect global businesses, and what new skills must be learned to make us more effective in a brave new world set spiraling in response to technological breakthroughs. Our theme, 'Imagination, Innovation, Communication,' captures the essence of what we do: transform ideas and innovations into a myriad of communication possibilities from technical manuals to virtual Web sites. The theme suggests a successful process with you at the center as an information juggernaut who must make critical choices as you approach a new millennium.
Hawkes, Lory. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Planning
#24396
Strategic planning is a process that enables organizations to determine where they intend to be and how to get there. Independent businesses must plan ahead to survive. Many internal organizations, threatened by corporate downsizing and outsourcing, must do the same. But what do you do after you've developed your strategic plan? Committing yourself and your organization to implementing your plan is a long-term challenge.
Hansen, Lauren Y., Mary C. Boyd and LeeAnne G. Kryder. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Management
#14708
The Importance of the Quality Culture
Cameron discusses the effects of three models of quality cultures in American and European corporations: error detection cultures, error prevention cultures, and creative quality cultures.
Smart, Karl L. Intercom (2001). Careers>Workplace>Quality
#27324
Improving Management of Your Business
All companies have business processes that can be improved. Most companies can benefit from automation or further automation of solutions.
Pires, Halstatt. Ezine Articles (2006). Careers>Management>Project Management>Workflow
#19790
Improving Managerial-Employee Communication: A Case Study
Technical communicators can use their professional skills to help industry improve managerial-employee communication, an area that directly affects productivity. This case study investigates upward and downward communication at an aerospace company. Beginning with a survey that indicated a number of statistically significant differences between the attitudes of managers and other employees, the researcher then attended a randomly selected series of meetings. As she followed the flow of information within the company, she observed omissions and inaccuracies. The company devised a new process for information deployment as a result of this study.
Horowitz, Renee B. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Business Communication>Workplace
#24690
Improving Your Work Teams by Identifying Individual Styles
Effective teams develop a synergy that cannot be estimated or measured, but is an end result of successful projects. This synergy can be contributed to effective communications and insightful task and resource assignment. By identifying team membership styles, and applying these styles to individuals in a team, all team members can contribute to the increased synergy and ultimate success of a project. Tools to achieve this effect, as well as practical examples to demonstrate it, motivate participants to reuse style identification methods.
Fay, Brenda and Dan Fay. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Collaboration
#14618
The author calls for a return to public recognition--rather than just a quick e-mail acknowledgment--of people's accomplishments. Legg presents the benefits of public celebration: It opens positive communication, builds self-esteem, inspires others, and shows and gains respect. She also deflates many of the perceived obstacles to public praise, and encourages readers to use their communication skills to acknowledge others.
Legg, Kathy A. Intercom (2000). Careers>Workplace>Assessment
#19807
Increase Your Impact on Proposal Preparation
To succeed in the 1990s, technical communicators must become more financially precise and increase their impact on procedures. These capabilities are especially critical during preparation of new business proposals. This workshop focuses on techniques and tasks that can increase the technical communicator’s ability to contribute while they reduce preparation time and cost. The techniques presented in this workshop have been successful in producing both commercial and government proposals.
Allen, Lori A. and William C. Wiese. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>TC>Proposals
#19941
Increasing Visibility: Building Demand for Technical Communication Services
Good technical communication is critical to the success of products and ultimately to the success of companies. But even the most perfect manuals may go unread, and the most elegant help systems may go unnoticed unless you take the time to promote the quality and necessity of your work. You need to showcase your talents and to encourage people throughout your company--and the community--to value and understand the work that you do. This will ideally lead to more respect, better pay, and more interesting work.
Huettner, Brenda P. TECHWR-L (2003). Careers>Freelance>TC
#22438
Independent Consulting in Technical Communication
The number of technical communicators working as independent consultants has increased remarkably over the past decade - may you call this a trend?
TC-FORUM (1998). Careers>Consulting>TC
#31445
The Independent Contract: What's In, What's Out
Many years ago I was asked to develop a marketing package for the environmental practice group of a large, Washington-based law firm. When I submitted the draft I got exclamations of delight and a promise to provide quick feedback from all the principals. It never came, and my phone queries went unanswered. So I waited, and waited, and waited—and then waited some more.
Steigman, Daria. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Careers>Freelance>Marketing>Environmental
#21671
Independent Contracting Opportunities and Issues in Asia/Pacific
As a U.S.-trained writer based in Singapore in recent years, my experiences and observations revealed significant opportunities that technical communicators working in the Asia/Pacific region can take advantage of as well as issues they are likely to need to come to grips with. My emphasis will be on Southeast Asia.
Kurtz, Jerry. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Consulting>Regional>Asia
#21187
Independents' Success Depends on Business Skills
I went independent in 1990 as a technical writer/instructional designer, and I now teach technical writing in corporations. My business has grown steadily, albeit slowly, in these thirteen years. I learned quickly that independents are businesses first and technical communicators second. Our work may feed our souls and pay the bills today, but if we ignore business matters, our practices will ultimately fail. It is not enough to be 'technically' smart— independents must be savvy in business to succeed in any economy.
Frick, Elizabeth G. 'Bette'. Intercom (2003). Careers>Consulting>TC
#24623
With such a considerable portion of our collective mindshare devoted to information management products these days, it's no wonder that you're lost in terminology and technology. And it's no wonder that so many of us are confused.
Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Careers>Content Management>Indexing
#28863
Industrial-Strength Technical Communication 
In the nineties, if an employer took one glance at your résumé and started to fall in love with you, it probably had a lot to do with your long list of software tool skills. Nowadays, most employers couldn't care less about tools. It's all about industry experience.
Davis, Douglas W. STC (2007). Careers>Resumes>TC
#18355
Even when the other side in a conflict seems unwilling to change, you can still exert a positive influence. Kenneth Kaye, author of Workplace Wars and How to End Them (AMACOM, 1994), assesses stalemates realistically: 'You're the only one you can change--and even that guy, you don't have all that much control over.' But to the extent that you're able to overcome the frustration of dealing with an uncooperative opponent, Kaye suggests several steps for improving the situation.
#26453
Information Architecture Institute Job Board
The IAI Job Board lists job postings related to information architecture, as well as information design, interaction design, user experience, and HCI.
Interaction Design Association (2005). Careers>Job Listings>Information Design
#22483
Information Architecture: A Rose by Any Other Name...
The efforts to define our field and our role are understandable by-products of our economic times and of forces in our contexts of practice. What are the pressures behind this quest for definition? What are the options (and potential advantages) of refusing to pigeonhole ourselves?
Stott, Lynn. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Careers>Information Design>Professionalism
#22471
Information Architecture: Where Does It Fit?
It seemed five years ago that 'information architect' was becoming a popular, fancy name for tech writer. Have all of the information architects of the late '90s morphed into usability specialists with a special emphasis on the Web? Or have they gone back to being 'learning products engineers' and 'technical writers'?
Lizak, Samantha. STC Williamette Valley (2004). Careers>Information Design>Web Design
#29782
Information Design and Becoming a Business Partner
The information age provides great opportunity--and threat--to technical communicators. By understanding more about the general domain--specifically the relationship between communication and information design--we have the opportunity to become valued business partners to our employers and clients.
Knemeyer, Dirk. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Information Design>TC
#24391
Information Development at Rockwell Software – Part 1: Organizational Issues and Work Process
Establishing and maintaining good relationships with internal customers is essential for technical writers. In our case, engineers are our internal customers and managing professional relationships with them can be challenging. At Rockwell Software, writers are matrixed into engineering organizations. This diffuses technical writing’s presence, but it gives us access to information we might not have if we were in a separate department. Given this organization, we have found that establishing personal relationships with engineers before focusing on work helps ensure our success. Finally, usability testing serves as a place where engineers and writers can focus on the success of their product as a whole.
Butler, Scott A., Eric J. Grabowski and Myron M. Shawala III. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Collaboration
#20701
On-demand printing, easy low-cost Web storefronts, and simple payment processing provide unprecedented methods and opportunities for technical writers to produce small, focused documentation for specific audiences. Seemingly all that is missing is the motivation.
Meyer, Gordon R. Usable Help (2003). Careers>Information Design>Writing>Technical Writing
#29783
Information Product Development Process Quality: Vision, Process, and Implementation
Two members of the management team from LSI Logic Storage Systems' Technical Publications Department review how their team developed a vision statement and an information product development process based on that vision statement. The workshop provides participants opportunities to learn about the value of vision statements and production processes as well as to begin developing these materials for their own organizations. Participants will also share ideas on how to maintain process integrity through customer focus, team feedback on product and process quality, and strategic continuous improvement. Participants will receive materials that enable them to draft their own vision statements, information product development processes, and continuous improvement team operating practices.
Burroughs, Dia H. and Randy Clark. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Management>TC
