STC Employment Information Managers

STC Employment Information Managers are listed by state and chapter. If a chapter does not have an employment information manager, the chapter president is listed. College advisers with student chapters are also listed.

STC Orange County. Careers>TC

The STC Salary Survey  

Every year, STC surveys its membership who work as technical editors and writers in the U.S. and Canada. The survey gathers information regarding this population's salaries and benefits.

STC (2007). Careers>Salaries>TC

Strategic Challenges for Technical Communication Managers  

Suggests ways that technical communication managers can confront the challenges facing their departments in 2002.

Carliner, Saul. Intercom (2002). Careers>Management>TC

Structural Change

One of the things on my mind these days is whether we are seeing structural changes in the technical communications business or whether things really are OK and we’ll all be back at work again once the economy improves. One of the reasons I favor the structural change point of view is that recently I’ve heard different people express concern about technical communications jobs migrating to other countries. I have no facts to verify this, but I do have questions and would be interested in hearing from you about what changes you are seeing in the business.

Baker, Jonathan W. STC Northern New England (2003). Careers>TC

Success is a Many-Splendored Thing  

Technical communicators with less than 3 years of experience face a special challenge: not only must they continue to assimilate technological change at a dizzying rate, but they must begin to effectively chart a course towards professional growth. Having established (or having faith in) their ability to survive in the profession, new and intermediate writers, editors, and illustrators must move beyond survival and begin to pursue success. This 90-minute workshop is based on the premise that it’s not enough to be a good writer with a strong technical background. You must posses multi-disciplinary skills to excel as a technical communicator and as a business person focused on the value you bring to your company.

Atkinson, Jennifer M. and Lee Taylor. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>TC>Planning

Success is a Many-Splendored Thing  

Managers of four of the Society's professional interest committees (PICs) launch discussions of what the new STC ethics guidelines mean to the areas of professional practice their PICs represent: Marketing, Scientific Communication, International Technical Communication, and Consulting and Independent Contracting.

Atkinson, Jennifer M. and Lee Taylor. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>TC>Ethics

Successful Independent Consulting Workshop  

To succeed as an independent consultant, technical communicators must master basic business concepts. This workshop focuses primarily on the set up and marketing of a technical communication consulting business. When setting up their business, independent consultants must consider the legal form of their business, required licensees, insurance, retirement plans, and industry going rates. Marketing methods are divided into passive and active techniques. Independent consultants must know how to market to two main channels: agencies and direct clients.

Florzak, Douglas. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Consulting>TC

Successful Telecommuting  

The information and technology wave of the 1990s has brought with it a new way of working: telecommuting. A May 1991 survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 21.8 million nonagricultural home workers, including 20 million who worked at home for their primary job. When considering this type of work arrangement, you need to decide if you and your work are right for telecommuting. Once you decide to telecommute, you need to know how to present your idea to your employer or customer and how to arrange your work environment and schedule for optimum performance.

Wolfe Sharp, Flo. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Telecommuting>TC

Summer: A Time to Heat Up Your Career

The arrival of summer means hot weather. What are you doing this summer to help keep your professional skills hot and to nurture your career? Our chapter can help you by offering networking, mentoring, publishing and speaking opportunities, and ways to acquire new skills.

Blackwelder, Meredith. Carolina Communique (2004). Careers>TC

Survival Skills for Part-time Technical Writing Parents  

Suggests ways technical communicators can cope with the often-conflicting demands of work and family.

Tremblay, Leanne. Intercom (2001). Careers>Advice>TC

Survival Skills for the Lone Writer  

What to expect as a lone writer.

Jackson, Celeste. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Careers>TC

Swedish Member Survey 1998

During 1998 a member survey was made by FTI, the Swedish Society for Technical Communication as a follow up to a survey made in 1991. Some 25% answered of the 400+ FTI members. Here follows a selection of the results along with some comments.

Näsström, Johan. TC-FORUM (1999). Careers>TC>Regional>Scandinavia

Teaming In A Publications Group   

The technical publications group of The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory was restructured to eliminate the traditional hierarchical organization in favor of multiple concurrent work teams. Every job is assigned to a work team, and people usually are on several teams at once, as leaders of some teams and members of others. We present two case studies describing teams that operated very differently. The teaming system allows us to tailor the approach to the needs of different clients.

Morris, Margaret K., Patrice H. Zurvalec and Murrie W. Burgan. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>TC>Collaboration>Case Studies

Tech Career Snapshots: CIO to Help Desk

Perhaps the first step in applying for a job is understanding the position itself. In the information technology field, that's a more complicated task than you might expect, as technology job titles are constantly in flux (like the technology itself). Even the hodgepodge of 'standard' titles requires some explanation beyond what's offered in job descriptions. For those new to the industry, this is especially confusing. You're thinking about entering the IT world, and suddenly you're confronted with names of positions you never even knew existed. A $60,000 salary for a quality assurance engineer? Not bad, but what is QA? Is this a position you aspire to? You'll never know, unless you know what a person in that position actually does.

Hoffman, Allan. Monster.com (2002). Careers>TC

Tech Resource: STC (The Society for Technical Communication)

Professional organizations often help define the professions they serve: Such is the case with the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Founded in 1953 as an organization for technical writers and editors, the STC is now an umbrella group for 25,000 professionals whose job roles include documentation specialists, visual designers, information architects, interactive designers and others who work with technical information. Their output includes technical manuals and now extends into charts, brochures, online tutorials, annual reports, Web-based training and other materials. With technical communication an increasingly diverse field, STC aims to broaden its membership with professionals from a variety of occupations.

Hoffman, Allan. Monster.com (2004). Careers>TC>History>STC

Tech Writers as Sales Reps?

Documentation teams often struggle to prove their ROI in the absence of any established metrics for measuring it. Understand the value of good documentation.

Graham, Gordon. Software CEO (2005). Careers>TC>Marketing

TechComm Careers: Your World of Opportunity

Our goal is to introduce you to the range of careers available in the field of technical communications and provide information about the skills needed in today's and tomorrow's workplaces and academies. Our site includes information on: Career Paths- what are your options in technical communication? Education- what degrees are available? Profiles- who are the people in technical communication? What do they do? Job Search- how do I prepare to find a job in technical communication? Resources- find out what books are out there on the topic. We also have links to other pages! FAQs- looking for a quick answer? Find them here! About us- find out who we are.

TechCommCareers.org (2002). Careers>TC

Technical and Scientific Communicators as Infopreneurs  

The technology trend for the future can be summed up in four words: instantaneous global information access. Advances in communications (wireless and electronic) and microprocessor technology will be responsible for the majority of this technology trend. The demand for immediate access to information from and to anywhere in the world will create a need for people with the requisite skills to design, develop and/or locate, and disseminate that information in as many formats as possible. To compete in this increasingly specialized information universe, technical and scientific communicators, information architects, and interactive information systems designers must expand their view of what they do to encompass the idea of 'infopreneuring' and see themselves as infopreneurs.

LeVie, Donald S., Jr. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>TC>Online

Technical Communication Career Center  

STC's Technical Communication Career Center (TC3) is a place for technical communicators and their potential employers to find each other. STC members have free access to the job seeker portion of the website.

STC. Careers>Job Listings>TC

Technical Communication in Power Systems

A technical writer in power systems must be a perfect jack-of -all trades, with flair to glean information on materials, equipments, systems, applications – and the related skills! A keen eye for detail is critical. The smallest slip can cause a serious mishap. But curiosity never killed a good technical writer! Being a good electrical engineer inherently takes care of most of these requirements - certainly not all. The scope is limitless to the self-motivated communicator.

Chaudhuri, Udit. Indus (2003). Careers>TC>Engineering

Technical Communication Provides Vital Link

In today's electronic age, almost everyone's life is touched by technology. But even though people use high-tech products on a daily basis, many don't know the first thing about how certain gadgets and gizmos work. That's where technical communication comes in. Often referred to as technical writing, this profession is a vital link to the vast, ever-changing and frequently confusing world of technology. Without it, people would be inventing products that the mass public would have no clue how to use. For that reason and more, technical communication is carving a niche for itself as a high-demand career.

Employment Review Online (2001). Careers>TC

Technical Communication Trends

During March and April 2003, Cherryleaf, in conjunction with HyperWrite, carried out a survey into the current trends in technical communication. We have been analysing the findings, and here is a summary of the results.

HyperWrite (2003). Careers>TC

Technical Communication: Love It or Leave It  

In this column, we are going to talk about why some technical communicators just plain hate their jobs. The bottom line is not to just stay in that unhappy place. Make up your mind to do something about it. Make your job into what you want it to be.

Davis, Douglas W. STC (2007). Careers>Advice>TC