 All right. So, um, yes, in addition to the, the giveaways copy of my book is in the library so if you weren't one of the lucky winners of the hard copy you can definitely get it and check it out from the library itself. All right. So, right off the bat, even though we call this presentation is technical writing right for me, a broader term is technical communication, because communicating can include video illustrations, it's not just writing so I wanted to say that right up front. I've already been introduced so we can skip this slide. So what I'm going to go into this morning is what is technical communication samples of tech com. What are the core competencies, you would need to be a tech writer. I'm going to go into a little bit about how to play in the documentation project so you get a feeling for what's involved, and then plenty of time for questions and answers. And we also can look at a few statistics on technical writing and salary surveys. They're kind of hard to read but you will get a copy of the slides after the presentation, if you want to drill down afterwards. All right. This is not me talking at you for 45 minutes to an hour this is group participation. So as we go through the program, if you have any questions put them in the chat window. I'll either get them as we go through the presentation or try to catch them at the end. And then finally, a disclaimer. I just said that some cultures artists think to attempt perfectionist anger the gods. So they purposely leave leave a little imperfection in any art they create. If you find any typos in here today, just not angering the gods. All right, let's go on. So what is technical communication. So technical communication STC defines technical communication as any form of communication that exists one more of following characteristics. One, communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer software, medical procedures, etc. By using technology, such as building a web page, or an online hub file, social media sites. And finally, providing instructions on how to do something, regardless of how technical that task is. All right, let's take each one of these. So speaking about a technical specialized topic that covers everything to computer hardware and software, aerospace, robotics, finance, medical, chemistry, biotech, right, even forestry. That's a specialized topic. So what's interesting as we go through these slides. There is the arts of technical writing or technical communication. And there's also the industry about which you are writing or communicating. I'll use those words interchangeably throughout the presentation. So, what's interesting is people asking all the time should I get a degree in computer technical writing. Similarly, you can take a certificate program. But if you're going to take a degree, try to study what you're going to be writing about. Right. So if you have a background in biology, that'll allow you to get a technical writing biology job. If you have a certificate in network administration, you can document how to do network administration. So you've got the task of technical writing and the subject about which you are writing that you need to know about. In this case, some specialized field. We talked about communicating by using technology. Right. There are special tools that a tech writer would use to create an online help page, or a web page, or the little pop ups that show up in software. Right. So, again, though, we're talking about communication, not just writing. So a YouTube video would be an example of technical communication if it explained how to do something. And then finally, instructions about anything is technical communication. This could be everything from nursery school policies and procedures to how to fit to nuclear submarine. That's a really wide field. Another thing you'll find is that there are many titles for technical communicators tech writer technical communicator. I've seen information engineer as a fancy fancy topic title. So if you are looking for jobs. Do look for writer but be aware, you're going to have multiple titles that will come up when you do your job search. All right, so let's look at some examples. The most classic example would be a tech writer and I'm going to hit escape here and switch screens for a second. All right, so this would be an example of a user manual. If you buy a printer and you get a thing showing you how to put it together. That's technical wreck. Right. There tends to be two types of tech writing. One is conceptual information. That's information about something. For example, in this sample. The first paragraph is what is a print driver. It's explaining something. But the second is a procedure. It tells you how to do something. And every type of technical writing in the world or technical communication is either conceptual or procedural. Okay. All right. Here's another example. If we looked up how do you fix a flat tire on YouTube. Someone created this video. It explains how to do something. So it would be technical communication as well. So you've got your traditional tech writing printed user manual video illustrations posters. There's many many different forms that write a good day. All right, let's go back to my slides. Okay. So what kind of skills do you need to be a tech writer. One, one would think good communication skills, both written verbal, but critical thinking. For example, if you're using software, and the instruction is enter a number between one and nine. What happens if you press the letter a, will it blow up? Will it just give you an error message saying no, we need a number here. It's up to you to when you're explaining something to a reader. Or a viewer or user that, well, this is what it should do, but what happens if something goes wrong. So it's your job to figure these things out. And a lot of times you're documenting something that doesn't even exist yet. Right. So you need those critical thinking skills. Next, if more often than not, you are documenting something that someone else created, whether that's medical software, a medical device, a procedure for installing a printer. So whoever built that item, you're probably going to have to interview them go, what does it do? What does it not do? What, what are the cautions? Have you ever seen one of those user manuals that says do not use this in a bathtub to clearly somebody tried using one of these in a bathtub at one time. So it's really important that you find out what's important from the person who created it so you could then document. Okay. Conflict resolution, who they thought. There are often multiple subject matter experts. And what do you do if one person says oh it should be orange, the other one says no it should be red, and you're the technocrator stuck in the middle. So part of this is getting them in the same room or in the same zoom call and said okay I can document this either way, but you guys decide which way it should go. Project management. You'll almost always have a deadline against which you are writing or working against. It's up to you to manage your time. It's also quite common for you to be working on multiple projects at a time. So project management is a big part of technical writing. Persistence. Remember those subject matter experts I mentioned. Okay I need the comments by Monday and Monday comes it goes and no comments. So it's up to you to stay after those people on from whom you need information. Okay, curiosity. What does this thing do, what does it not do. What will happen if somebody types in something wrong. Right. So if you're using a program say on how to draw a square. That's not really a problem if you draw it too big or too small. What if it's medical software, and you forget to the user forgets to write in that somebody has a don't allergy to a particular drug, and that patient gets the drug that patient could die. So what do we do about this, right. So part of our job is to say what can go wrong. What do we do about it and how do we prevent it. And that's all out of curiosity is you asking the right questions, which leads me to a next bullet is a quick learner. We often don't have time to spend days and days and days learning something you got to get in it, get it done, go on to the next project. A quick learner is another attribute that makes for a good tech writer. And again, finally able to handle changing requirements and priorities. It is very often someone goes, oh wait, we need to ship this drop what you're doing work on this. And you go okay. And you're juggling multiple priorities multiple projects where we have to get done today. Oh they just made a new change I got to get that done. So this is not a good field. This is not very slow and steady tech writing is not just writing it's all these other things we're talking about on the screen. So you need to be a very good communicator not just a good writer. All right. Let me see the chat window before we go on to the next question or section on my slides. What is my opinion of grammar early software, any grammar software package. There's a couple of things that you can consider. There's grammar checkers, there's spell checkers, but they don't always catch all the mistakes you might make. For instance, a word that sounds similar back can make mean hit something. It can also mean a mammal, a fly mammal. So oftentimes the grammar checkers won't check really what you need. Most often you have what's called a style guide where, for instance, if you're documenting software, do you want to say click, click on press, because what you want to do is be consistent. If you don't want a manual may have five or six writers working on it. It's really big. You want to have one voice. So yes, grammar checkers are great, but they're not infallible. All right, let's go down next question here. Can you please touch on writing portfolios. Yeah, let me bring that up at the end. I do a whole, by the way, Angela, I do a whole presentation on how to create portfolios that might be a good follow on session to this one. All right, let's move on types of technical writing jobs. These are the most common, but there's many, many more software and hardware user guides. When you buy again or print or how do you plug it in how do you install it, programmer guides software is written in the old days just on a PC or a big computer now it's all web based. And software packages can interface with other software packages and somebody has to document that interface. Right. So programmer guides are very popular, especially in the Bay Area. Online help policies and procedures, tech support websites, medical writing, marketing writing, and then the software that's embedded in the words that are embedded in software. And that as well. It's usually called UX writing user experience writing. That's another type of writing. So again, there are many, many types of technical communication here just a few of the more common ones. All right, let's talk about ways to make money. There are three general ways that you can make money as a tech writer, either your salary employee with benefits like normal salary job. You can be a contractor where you get paid hourly for maybe a week or two weeks or three months, however long the project is, or you can start your own technical writing company, where companies give you a project you often bid it sometimes on a fixed bid. And the faster you get it done the more money you make. And those are the three ways to make money. There's others, but these are the most common. So let's talk about money and jobs. I did a quick search of the number of technical writing jobs posted in the last 14 days within 30 miles of San Francisco. Thanks.com at 13 full time jobs and 26 contract openings. Indeed had 10 three and zip recruiter at 36. Right. But keep in mind, you have to look for multiple ways. If you just put in writer, you can get policy procedure writer, a technical writer, a UX writer. So use the more generic writer. You'll also get magazine writer jobs but it's up to you then to drill down and look for the types of jobs you're looking for. All right, I'm going to zoom in here because this is a little hard to read. The latest salary survey from the Society for technical communication was 2018. The number of technical writing jobs was 8,860 down 4% over the previous year, but employment services and temporary jobs were up 383.8% and architecture engineering up 6%. So you can read these numbers afterwards if you want to get down into a little more detail. So it's also hard to read so squint and look at my screen here of the states. California is number one with the most technical writing jobs. I also pulled some salary surveys, the average annual wage is 91,310 in California. Now granted, it'd be higher the bay area and lower in someplace like, I don't know, Modesto, but this is the average. The 10th percentile meeting only 10% of the jobs pay 53,000. And at the top, most of them come in at under 140. So somewhere between 53 and 140, that's a huge gap that's almost $100,000 difference. Right. But again, it depends on your city and depends on the field. So I mentioned earlier in the presentation and mentioned that if you have specialized domain knowledge, like if you're, if your degree is in biochemistry, you can command a higher salary than say someone who has a certificate and garden it right off the top of my head. So the more technical your background, the more technical the job you can write about. Right. So when choosing a career, technical writing is fun. It's interesting, but you also have to choose where you want to specialize in. Right. And again, that's going to adjust your salary, but you can look at these numbers later. Okay. So pause here. Any other questions about job hunting, salary surveys, surveys, and where the jobs are available in the Bay Area. I don't see any questions, Jack. Okay. So in this next section, I'm going to go through it briefly. Just like a builder. If you're going to have a house built for you, you would normally go to an architect who drops the plans. An engineer would write up a design document before coding. Well, so would a tech writer. We call it a document plan or project plan. I would not expect an entry level person to be able to write one of these from scratch, your manager probably will. But this will show you the types of information that goes into. In this case, it was a user manual programming guide. All right. The very first thing that you should ask is, what is the, what am I documenting. Right. What is the purpose, am I. Is this a user manual, is it a policies and procedures, just to find right up front, the purpose of the document, but more importantly the audiences. Am I writing this for someone who's got a PhD in microbiology, or is it a installation guide for the general public that that affects how you write scope. This manual will cover accounts receivable and accounts payable but it's not going to cover. Say general ledger or payroll. Pre-requisites. If this is a programming guide, I'm not going to teach you how to use the programming language. I'm going to assume you already know that language. And you just define these right up front. Does the company have an existing style guide that I need to follow, or do they need me to create one. Right. How are we going to print this manual is going to be in color black and white is going to be online. Who are my subject matter experts and technical reviewers. I'm going to review the plan. Right. I'll give you a war story. We're writing a user manual installation guide for a printer, one of the big printer companies. And a week before we went to finish somebody in their New York office and I want to review the manual and just wanted to rearrange the whole thing. Had I known that person was going to be part of the review cycle. I would have given them the outline. It's much easier to change an outline than it is the manual is already written. So you would as part of tech writing is find out who's who's reviewing this manual because you're going to want to get review comments from them if you remember that risks and issues or risk is anything that could impact the project. The issue is just something that needs to be resolved. For example, odd time software has a code name before it's actually released. It's fine. I just need to know give me I need two days in order to update all the names before we go live. And finally, the risk management I call it shark mitigation, you don't want something to come up and bite you in the butt. Two days before you ship. So if you identify your risks upfront. Right. Then it helps make things go smoothly. Notice though, we haven't even started writing yet. But we're still going through all these steps. So you can get the information you need to write. And then this is when you then create an outline. Right. One of the war stories I tell. I'm going to define some terms. A white paper is normally a document that's printed on plain white paper. It's normally handed out at trade shows. And it tells you about your technology. A, a data sheet is usually frightened back color with all the specifications for that product. Again, it's usually handed out at a trade show but it's much more expensive to print much color and goes into more detail. So we said they wanted a white paper on this particular technology, and we wrote the most beautiful white paper in the history of mankind. You would have wept at the beauty of this white paper. We turn it in and he, he was from Japan so he was not a native speaker he goes that not white paper. I go yes it is he goes no front back color. He wanted a data sheet, but he said, white paper. So now we prototype we go. This is a white paper is this what you want. This is what the online help will look like is this what you want. This is the level of detail the illustrations we're going to use is this what you want and get them to sign off on that before you ever start writing. And that keeps you from having to go back and rewrite stuff from scratch. Okay, so it's a little bit of this is a very fast overview of the technical writing process. All right. So we did the doc plan. And then this is how the user manual ended up. Now it's interesting remember I said you have to interview your subject matter experts before you can document something. This was a database system. This is skip this for a second. Now let's talk about the staff somebody in the audience asked about portfolios. Normally, I'll put examples of what I've written. Right, like this, but I also put advertisements for the products that I documented. For example, if you look at the digital camera on the right side of this portfolio, not only did I document that it won an award in the publications competition. I also did the documentation for the s 600 printer. I did the piece on the right was for a conference. We documented file maker mobile and this is an advertisement for it. So, looking at my black and white samples is okay but this is more interesting. Right. They'll remember these more than they'll remember the black and white page. So just, here's another example. Not only did I. Okay, this is an example on the left of a data sheet front and back color, but on the right. When that LCD projector was reviewed by PC magazine, the review said the concise manual made setup easy. You better believe I put this in my portfolio. Okay. All right. Finally, a before and after sample. This is how that database was explained to me. If this was not a dinner napkin it would have been even better but literally this was how it's explained to me. This is how I drew it. And this is how it ended up in the manual. So this is a really good example of what it takes to document something that doesn't exist yet. It's explained to you, you take that explanation and either using words, like at the top of this page or a diagram in the middle of the page, or sometimes an animation. Question, roughly what percent of your technical writing work has been done in Microsoft Word. Wow, excellent question. I would say probably 975 to 90% of all technical writing is done in Microsoft Word. There are not that many companies out there. However, the bigger the manuals get, for example, there are hundreds of millions of documentation pages on how to repair a 747 airplane. Right. It would be absolutely impossible to keep all that content in Microsoft Word. So we have very specialized tools that tech writers use Adobe makes one called frame maker. If you look at the Bay Area and do your own usability search, look at who's hiring in the Bay Area and what tools they're looking for. Most of them will be looking for Word, but a good 20 to 2075 half in the Bay Area because we're so high tech in the Bay Area that they want additional tools. That's a good question. Okay. So this is a question. Go ahead and put in the chat so I can see it. And I'm going to go on until that question comes up. I think Winston has a question, Jack. They asked for the printer manual re or war story. Did you have to reorganize it or was that request concerted too late. We accommodated them. Now we chart. Okay, so let's, that's a good question. And since we have time for Q&A now it's Q&A time. Let me take that up. So if, if I was a salaried employee and my boss asks me to change the manual by golly I'm going to change that manual. Right. It's different if you're, if you gave someone a fixed bid say okay I will, you know, I can create that manual for $10,000. And one of the reasons we do the document plan that we have that I walked you through is but we define all the variables we don't have any pages. Here's an outline that costs that much amount of money. Had they, had I done a fixed bid, and they asked for all those changes, I would have done what's called a change order going, Okay, this is what you asked for. It's outside of the scope of our agreement. It's going to take this many days and this much time to do the changes do you want me to do them. Even if we're a salaried employee, we would still do a change request because it's different than what you originally asked for. Now, a lot of times, this is where your negotiating skills come in. If your boss says I need you to rearrange this whole manual because somebody in New York wants it. I would go great. I can do that by Monday, but you're not going to get the index done. Do you want me to stop the index and work on this. I'll get the index done two days later. Right. Yes, I can do it. I can absolutely do it. But it just says this is where triage going. Yes, I can do it, but something's going to have to give, or I'm going to have to work 20 hours a day for the next three days I want some time. This is where remember I said on the core competencies conflict resolution and negotiation skills. That's where that comes in. Yeah. Okay, good. How does technical writing for internet based companies like Salesforce differ from technical writing for non digital products like printers. Excellent question. When you're documenting software that resides on the web. Oftentimes, use the tech writer will put the instructions right there the screen. Give you an example, have you ever used software, and it says, enter your birthday or enter your, your birthday, the date of birth. And you putting database it goes no no no I wanted it your month day. Well, if you would have just told me you wanted it in your month day format I would have kept it in instead of giving me an error message. If you're putting the tech writing when you're doing for digital things like Salesforce, you're putting the tech writing right in the same screen, where the software is, or it's a pop up right next to it. Now, for something like a printer, a non digital product like a printer. So what language, or how proficient. If you're writing in English, that person is English may be a second or third language for them. So when writing for a printer we tell you use more illustrations and fewer words, especially if you're translating the documentation into multiple languages. It's actually more expensive to translate a document than the right in the first place. But I think that's the main difference for an online thing like Salesforce, you're writing the documentation as part of the product, where something like a printer. It's a separate manual that gets shipped with the printer. Excellent questions. Please keep them coming. Any idea what percentage of jobs posting a remote only right now, almost all of them. And for years. Companies would let somebody tell it to be one or two days a week. What we found is people are actually more productive working from home, because you don't have people interrupting you. That hour that I would have spent, you know, on Bart getting to work and then another hour getting the home. I could have been working those two hours. So I think you're going to see a lot more fully remote positions post coded, or maybe spend one day of week at the office instead of five. So good questions. I use a Mac do I need a different system to do this work. Yes and no. There is Microsoft Word for Mac is just like Word for Windows. Not a problem. You can say a Windows based application. Well, it's going to be a you need the program that it will run on. Right. If it's a web based application and you just need to open your browser. But if it's Windows software, you need to run out of Windows, Windows, but more often than not, your employer will be giving you the laptop with whatever operating system they want you to use. The third option other than Mac windows is like Amazon Web Services, where you're logging into a virtual machine. And it doesn't matter what computer you're logging in from. Okay, but more than likely your employer will be giving you a company laptop to work from to technical writers conduct interviews or do research with consumers. As UX UI designers do. How do technical writers make sure people understand the content. Okay. So let me define some terms UX is user experience and UI is user interface, the people who designed the software screens. This is a very, very good question because it varies from company. The companies don't want the tech writers talking to the customers. They want to limit marketing talking with tech writers. They're really good companies do. What do you use a research for example, I personally know that the technical writers add into it to make quick books and quicken will actually go to a store and wait for someone to buy that product and with their permission, follow them home and watch them install it and to see where the pain points are. What did they understand and what questions did they have that wasn't covered in the manual. It's a good user research. So the more there's also this thing we call a B testing. It's like going to the optometrist. Is it clear this way or this way where we go. All right, here's two ways we documented this which one is clear. Right. Here's two illustrations which one is easier to read. You're definitely definitely for a very good company, you as a tech writer tech calm person will be doing user research. It's not considered maybe go into a company that does the second half of that question. And I need you to scroll up for a second. How do tech writers make sure people understand the content. Yeah, I use ability testing and a B testing and actually watching them use it. Another way that tech writers can show their worth is that if I've been a software company, you know how there's tech support in most companies. If I can go to the tech support team and say what are the questions most people are calling in with. If it's a procedural issue that's not documented well, I can fix that in the documentation. If it's a problem with the program, well then they have to go back and fix the program. But that's another source of data. A third source is oftentimes these days we put documentation not printed. It's on the web. And if it's a web page. There are metrics you can use as a tech writer to decide if you're being effective or not. So open your interpretation though. Right, so say someone is looking at your user manual instructions online. And they're keeping that window open for a long time. That either means one or two things. One, what you're writing is confusing it's taking a while for them to read it. Or it's really good and they're using it as a reference such as a programming language. So there are times. You can tell like, did they go to the website, did they bounce out of the page, could they not find what they were looking for. You can monitor what they're typing in the chat window, or what they're Google searching for. Because so often, they'll go, they'll just go straight to Google. How do I, you know, reinstall my s 600 printer software. It's your job to make them find your user manual, not necessarily some person on a chat window somewhere. There's another term that I'm just going to bring up briefly. It's called crowdsourcing, where it's actually you let the users or the customers write the documentation, or you have somebody creating an online tech support portal. And you find out what people those questions and you answer those questions and those questions and answers become part of the documentation. Right. So that's another thing you can do is monitor what questions are people asking that would show that you can document that as well. Okay, let's go on to the next question. What is the time and money investment for training and certification. Any recommended schools with an online platform. First of all, I used to teach technical writing tech writing one on one Cal State, Florida. Now all of them have gone remote. So there's hundreds of technical writing classes out there. I can't recommend one or the other. I can tell you though that a technical writing certificate program, you can complete in a matter of weeks. So if you want, knowing we may go in person classroom again, I'm a firm believer that a hybrid format for training is best not in person, not online only, but a blend of both. So, as far as time and money. If you do one intro to tech writing class, that's enough to get you your first tech writing job. Right. And remember I said earlier that you have to have domain knowledge. So in addition to that technical writing class, take a class in database administration, or take a class and network administration, or in biology, because if there are two people going for the same entry level job. One has a certificate in training in the domain and the other one doesn't the domain ones project the job first. And it's a lot harder to get a degree in medicine, then it is to get a certificate networking. So figure out what you're interested in and research how long it would take but you do not need to get a degree in technical writing to do tech. The certificate is fine. Okay, next question. These are guides moving more online versus print and do tech writers need more ability with HTML and other web based layout coding. More than just knowledge of printing. The short answer is yes they are going online. Now, I'm going to answer your question a little bit around about way, but it will answer this question. So take a company like Cisco systems that has, I don't know 120 products they sell, each of which needs an installation guide, a tech support page, a brochure, maybe a how to video and multiply that by the 26 languages they translated to worldwide. It would be absolutely impossible to keep that content around in Microsoft Word. So the clever person will take all that content and put it to a database. So you can spit it out where you want it, when you want it in the language you want it on the device you want it person does that is a content strategist. Right. So, as more and more people start using mobile devices to look up how to do things. You can't take an eight and a half by 11 manual and read it on a mobile device you be constantly scrolling up and down left to right. So, there are tools that if you put your documentation on the web. The web browser knows what device you're using to read that page. Right. If I'm on a big screen, it might give me four columns of text because I've got that bandwidth I've got that real estate. If I'm reading it on a laptop, I make it three columns of text. If I'm looking at on a tablet, I make it two columns. And if I'm looking at on a phone I'll get one column. So the documentation is responsive it knows what you are reading that device, what device you're using to read that manual, and it will format accordingly. So what you need to HTML is hypertext markup language. But there are a lot of tools that would do that HTML for you. So your job. It's not my slides but everybody get a pen or watch this afterwards. There's a thing called dita spelled dita. It stands for Darwin information typing architecture, really fancy fancy name. It's just a way of putting this stuff in a database. Additionally, if we're using Microsoft Word to write a manual, and you may have done this if you've ever used word before, where you go okay. I've got my heading it's going to be this big and black and then I have some, the heading is that big paragraphs this big right we're formatting the document as we go that takes a lot of time. So if you're printing a manual and you know it's going to be on eight and a half by 11 paper that doesn't work. If you're putting it online and you don't know how what device person's reading your document your documentation music. So things like data, and if you go to learning data calm you can take a free class of it. Data is one of these ways where you just type the information in and it's formatted when it's output, not when it's written. So now we're getting into what's called structured authoring. It's the database. So 90% of the jobs you will encounter are not structured authoring their plain old using word to write a manual. The last is growing segment is the structure authoring. So I would, if you're, if you're interested in tech writing, take a class and data, like and learning data calm, because that will also give you yet another tool in your toolbox to make you terrible. Okay. Good questions, nine more. Oh my gosh, let's go. Any suggestions for companies to hold on any suggestions for companies to information interviews with that is both technical writing companies as well as corporations who hire large number of tech writers. Yes. There are companies out there, there are staffing companies like mine specialized in tech writing. There's several in the Bay Area so if you just look for, you know, technical writing recruiter, you'll find them. There are also the Bay Area has a chapter of the Society for technical communication. That's a great way to find out who's in the field and network with them. There are also outsourced writing companies that that does just tech writing that you can find there are several in the Bay Area as well. So you have large companies hiring tech writers and then you have technical writing companies hiring tech writers. So you've got a lot of opportunities there, but I would just do a Google search for them in your area because not everybody on this call is in the Bay Area. All right, next question is part of the job to maintain the documents you have written so it's up to date. Yes. And it's oftentimes you need to go back and update a document somebody else has written. And that's why it's important to have that style guide so everybody's using the same verbs and the same nouns when describing something. I'll give you an example of this. For my conference, we have LCD projectors that so people can see the screen. And I was out of town and went to buy one because it broke, and capital one declined the purchase because it was a large amount not in my state where I normally was. So now I just tell them when I'm traveling. So they, you know, know it's a legitimate purchase. Well, if you go to their website, the option to do that is special specified travel days. But if you go to their 800 number, the option option is fraud management. First of all, I want to prevent my fraud, not manage it, but there are two people in the same company not even calling the same feature the same thing. I think it's important coordinate with other departments within a company. And this is where I sat in those core competencies, negotiation, coordination, interviewing skills, so much tech writing is not writing. It's interviewing and planning and coordinating and project planning and stuff. Good questions. Next, to request get information in interviews as possible, Abra, I don't understand that question would you please rephrase it at the bottom and I'll get to it next. Do you see or hear more growth in tech writing business to business or business to consumer. I'd say they're both growing at the same pace. A lot of the business to business writing is marketing writing. And I'll tell you, I mentioned earlier that technical writings called different things in their departments right. It's the same skill set to do marketing writing it is to do technical writing. But the marketing people tend to get all the funding because they generate revenue where tech writers often are considered a cost center. So there are far more marketing writing jobs there. And then there are tech writing jobs. So given that there's more marketing being done, both business to consumer and business to business. I would say there's more growth in marketing than a tech calm. But they're both growing. Next, what are some of the best actions and I'm going to see if I can make this check window a little bit bigger. Okay. What are some of the actions I should take to convince companies to hire me. Do I need to have a portfolio of writing examples to get hired. Yes, as the short answer to that. If you're going to get a technical writing class, you will help they will give you assignments to do. You can put those in your portfolio. Another thing you can do to make yourself more hireable is go to your favorite charity like save the bay. Humanity and offer to write the policies and procedures that I work for coffee and donuts just to have something to put on my resume and something to put in my portfolio. And you can say, from October 2021 to present independent contractor working for organizations such as enlist those organizations. Nowhere in your resume doesn't say how much you made at your last job. That's not in a resume. Right. So you may have worked for pizza and Coke. I don't care, but I do want to see what you've done. So yeah, that's how you get samples to put in the portfolio. Okay, next, our intro shirts a common route for entering the industry, or it's a more viable to begin at the entry level full time role summer internship shirts are great. Especially if you're are most companies these days want to decorate and have a great and something. Right. That's why I say like if you want to study chemistry, get a degree in chemistry and take that tech growing class that way you will have both the main knowledge while you're going to school summer internships are a great way to get your foot indoors. Yes. There's also a few positions but they're both good. STC or may have recommendations for training that is absolutely correct. As a contractor or new business, how do you recommend starting out getting your first clients beyond the domain specific training you recommended. Is there anything else we should do when you don't have reviews or a body of work. If that were even something you can share. Yes. Yeah, first of all, oftentimes you will player will ask you to sign a non disclosure. So you can't show a sample of your writing. So I always ask permission. When I start a project said, Hey, as an independent contractor, may I use this to land my next role. If you're looking, if you want to start your own business or go independent contractor, and you're currently working as a tech writer. So oftentimes get that first tech great job. Right. So you can actually have a salary to eat on, you know, because eating is good, and then start developing your, your contract work on the side. And at some point, you're going to start turning away more business because you don't have time. That's when you quit your day job and do your tech writing company or independent contracting on the side because you'll be making more money there than you would. So oftentimes network with people who need tech writing. Right. So if you go to STC or other technical writing meetups, they'll be hiring managers they're saying yeah I'm looking to hire. But if you go to say a C++ which is a programming language meetup, those programmers may need documentation for their software. So go to networking events where people will need your services. I have been handing out my business card for years, and I'll get somebody called me and said listen, I met you six years ago at such and such conference. I finally need a contract technical writing, I'm calling you in. All right, so that's one of the ways you market your services, but we could do a whole session on that topic alone. So Angela if you want to do an advanced how do you how do you land your first type of writing client as independent contractor we could do that too. Okay, next data training thank you, Angela for putting that in the chat window. By the way, if you don't know this in the bottom right hand corner of the chat window is that dot dot dot menu. You can click on that and save the chat window. That way you can go back and get all these links that Angela has been dropping in roughly what percentage of everything work you think is done in Apple's pages software, I would say probably 1%. That would be my guess, very few very few dollars and pages. What's the career path for technical writers do they rise up for senior to senior tech writer tech writer manager director or something. How do they move forward. Okay. Both good news and bad news. Yes, you start as an entry level then you give them a tech writer tech writer to then senior technical writer, eventually you can become documentation manager. Normally though that's where it stops. The engineer can become, say, a software engineer senior software engineer developer manager, they could go on to be like vice president of development they could go on to be CEO, because they've risen up the ranks that not so much with tech writing. So if you want to, if you were looking for a career path, where you want to be CEO before if I find your company, temporary is probably not the way to do that. But that's, that's where usually where it stops is documentation manager. 18 more. Oh God. Alright, I'm going to get through these as fast as I can. Angela how much time do we have left. We have six, six minutes holy moly. Okay. So here's what I'm going to do. I am going to save this chat window. And any questions that I don't get to live. I'll try to put them in an email, Angela to you. And then you can send that out with the slides, when the slides go out okay. Alright, for a newbie to all of this, what is your insight on the practical route to get into this career without feeling overwhelmed in terms of time and money investment. A, take a certificate, one class in tech writing, one to see if you like it, because that's enough to get to your first entry level job. If you don't have domain knowledge to take a second class and something you want to write about, such as network administration, microbiology, medical devices, manufacturing. Right, that way you have both the technical writing and the domain knowledge and those two classes, or those two certificates probably would be a better word is how you get entry without being overwhelmed. Okay, so you get to that okay good. Would you start as an employee, or independent contract right away now start as an employee. It's way too much to learn. And it would take you probably too long to get up to speed as an independent contractor. Oh, okay good. Since I'm just starting contract, okay good that's good. You're not popular Microsoft Word is should we buy it ourselves to get proficient at it, or would getting used to one of the three alternatives like Libre Office be sufficient. Yeah, you really should use word. I mean a good place like Google Docs is excellent but it doesn't have all the functionality word does. Yeah, it doesn't mean you have to go out and spend, you know $400 Microsoft Word. One, if you go on eBay, you can find a used copy, just make sure you get the installation CD so it's not a bootleg copy. And that's an easy way to learn word is just getting used copy on there's plenty of them out there. Yeah, that's my answer to that question. But there's all see me clarify that. There's a lot of other authoring tools that tech writers use, and the way to find that is do a job searching your area and see what tools, the people in your area are looking for. You can normally download free copies of all the tools for a 30 or 60 and 90 day trial, or again going eBay five use copies to just make sure they're not bootleg. Yeah, nothing is worse than not getting job because they have a tool, and you don't have that tool, especially since it's easy to learn these tools. So things like did our harder. That's more database type programming stuff. But again, it's worth your while. Find what tools are being used in your area. Okay, so here's a nice topic to end on. When someone is looking to hire someone they're looking for five things. One, what are you, are you a tech writer, are you a chef, what are you to do you have experience in my industry. That domain knowledge comes in. Three, do you have the tools we use here for an entry level position they will probably train you on the tools. But if it's a two month contract where they want you to come in get done and get out. They want you to have those tools already for how senior are you are you entry level or management level and five can I afford you and five is the only one not covered in your resume. So people want to domain knowledge, they want the tools. They want to know what you are and how senior you are and then really is this remote or are you near enough to come into the office. Okay. All right. Ah, um, when will we announce the book winners. I'm not live. I'm Angela I believe is going to send that out in the follow up email is that correct Angel. Yes, I will be sending out an email to the winners after the presentation ends. Excellent. All right, Angela do you have anything for me because that's a good place to end now. No, I think there was one question someone had asked way earlier. They're asking about do you do your own illustrations when you guys are writing the tech, when doing the technical writing. Yes and no. A small company is probably going to want you to do the illustrations like I did here I drew this. And I'm not a, I don't have any formal training in art and I just figured out how to do it. So chances are you'll be doing your own illustrations. You'll also be doing your own screen captures and oftentimes we have to cut them out so there are tools that we use to do those screen captures with. And on the last page. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. You never know when I get a job in the first place I look at people already know or connected with with that LinkedIn before posting the job online so you're free to connect with me on LinkedIn. If you had a question you didn't want to ask in public, you're more than welcome to email me directly and one of the ways I get back to the business is answering questions as people coming up through the ranks, I'd be happy to do that. You're doing a different kind of skill as an editor yes completely different. If you want to take a class of editing but it's a different skill set for sure. Okay good. All right so I want to thank everybody if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me. We tend not to fill entry level positions because companies usually can find those people on their own. So I'm not a good person to come to for an entry level position. But I can give advice and I can do resume reviews if you'd like some real quick. I can do a fast resume review for free. But if you want coaching. That's another option but we're not going to do that today. Okay good so everyone thank you very much. I hope you learned something today. It was my pleasure to be here. It's time to share with us your knowledge of what it's like to work in the technical writing communication field. I also like to thank everyone for attending. I hope you found this presentation informative. I'll be sending out a link to the recording along with the presentation slides and an evaluation survey and I will really appreciate it if you could take the time out to fill out the survey so we can improve in our programs. Thank you and the program. Thank you all for joining. Have a good rest of your day. And Cheryl, yes, you may email me directly. And I will send out that evaluation survey with Jack's email as well. Thanks everyone. Cheers.