Feline Musings

Technical Publications that includes Technical Writing/Editing, Instructional Designing, Content Management and Graphic Designing, is one of the fastest growing professional avenues in the country. Rapidly expanding software, hardware, consumer electronics, bio-pharmaceutical and financial services industries, to name a few, have increased the demand for technical communicators and editors in India. Technical Publications play a vital role in bridging the gap between subject matter experts (Business Analysts and Engineers) and end-users by explaining intricate technical and product specific information, either through the written word or graphically.

As the demand for Technical Writers and Instructional Designers is increasing manifold, many institutes are launching courses to train aspirants, who want to hone their skills in this area. For example, the well-known Symbiosis Center of Distance Learning offers a certificate course in Instructional Designing, while another institute – Wavelength eLearning Consulting and Training – offers a variety of online certificate courses in Instructional Designing and Content Writing. Similarly, training institutes in Bangalore and Pune, such as The Writers Block (TWB) and Technowrites Pvt. Ltd, have been riding the wave of demand for Technical Writers and mostly train on the usage of authoring tools. Many art schools and multimedia institutes like Arena, provide graphic designing courses particularly for the eLearning domain and for website development.

As a Lead,Technical Editor in a software product based organization, my job responsibilities include recruiting for and training new recruits to bring them up to speed with the project’s onsite documentation team. While the use of the term “technical” in the nomenclature helps to draw the line between other forms of writing, like creative, or scientific, it also misleads many aspirants. Many people believe that having a technical bent of mind, or college degree, is the key to success in this field. This is only partially true, because the master key of this field is held in the word “writing.” To become a successful technical writer, it is imperative to be a writer, i.e. to have the required dexterity to write and express effectively. With a generous sprinkling of common sense, the power of observation, the desire to experiment and learn, innovate and initiate and ample research and analysis, one can embark upon this career and continue to gain knowledge of the technical bits.

While trainings and certifications go a long way in laying the foundation of a good career in Technical Publications, the innate aptitude required for the job cannot be acquired through training. For any individual wanting to embark upon a career in Technical Publications or for any business/organization seeking to develop a robust Technical Publications department, it is imperative to develop and look at the following core competencies: ability to clearly and concisely communicate in writing, ability to understand and express complex technical artifacts and developments in simple and grammatically correct language, ability to visualize, interpret and most significantly, the ability to observe, seek and constantly self-educate.

In my career, I have come across many candidates, including Engineering and Computer Science graduates, who took up a career in Technical Publications, not by choice, but by chance or by circumstance. Since Technical Publications is all about deliverables in the written form, and constant clear communication, candidates by chance or circumstance can succeed only when they have strong communication and writing skills. I feel helpless to see candidates who reach a sudden roadblock in their career in Technical Publications, just because they do not have the required skills to become individual contributors, editors or documentation team leads, owing to a paucity of good written and spoken language. And at these times, I feel that burgeoning training institutes are misleading candidates by teaching authoring tools, and some basic principles of writing, but not profiling these candidates to see whether they are suitable for this calling. I, on my part, when recruiting junior level resources, never emphasize on their tool or domain knowledge but always on their communication skills – ability to express verbally and in writing.

What provoked me to write this piece was the fact that many youngsters and aspiring software engineers took up a career in technical documentation in the years of the DotCom bubble burst sometime between 2001 and 2003. I know of some extremely successful technical writers, who today are the beacon lights in the field of Technical Publications, and are the products of the last IT slowdown. But for many it wasn’t a very wise career move in the context of their inherent skills. With the dark shadows of recession once again hovering over us, it’s again possible that job-seekers are forced into taking up a career in documentation, just because there is an opportunity, or on somebody’s advise. Many training institutes will also try to bait youngsters to get trained for a promising career.

In the above context, I would like to reiterate that irrespective of the use of the word technical, Technical Publications is an art, and requires inherent competencies which no training institute or educational course can claim to offer. A career choice is a decision for a life-time, so don’t make any hasty moves but analyze your abilities, flair and area of interest. For those, who have it in them, a career in Technical Publications is highly satisfying and promising.

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