I agree. A clear plan always helps, and it was in the company’s best interest to have one. In the end though, having that much autonomy helped me, because it forced me to manage a project, which was a skill that I would need later.

If it took you three months to figure out what they really needed, that’s hardly your fault. If they’d told you they needed that particular report “three months ago,” they’d have gotten it “three months ago.” If the company doesn’t even know what it needs, how can it expect the “newbie” to know? I think they were fortunate that you figured it out–and did so without their help or guidance.

Jeanne

I understand what you are saying. One of the side effects of showing my career as a writer is demonstrating the ways in which I have grown. What I was pointing out was that I had struggled for months to do something fancy when what the programmers needed (but didn’t know they wanted) was something simple. It didn’t take much work on my part compared to the other project, but it is probably the most useful thing I produced there. At that time I felt as if only hard work should be rewarded, and that project wasn’t very hard work. I know now that if what you created helps someone else, thats the important thing.

I tried to do something at my most recent job by creating a relatively simple Access database of all the programs for which I was responsible for running on a routine basis. I used Access because I wanted to be able to create simple reports such as lists of programs that are run on a monthly schedule or a weekly schedule. One of my goals was to eventually include variable lists in the database but I left the position before I could get that far.

Still, the database was popular among the section managers who saw it as a way to keep our programs up-to-date. My coworkers were actually less enthusiastic since they were delegated the responsibility of providing background for each of the programs. Most of the programs had no documentation attached to them, and so, for many of them, this was just more work for them to do.

In spite of my coworkers’ antipathy, I feel good about creating the database. At the least, it enabled me to do my job more efficiently. Most of my praise came from my supervisor, which I accepted with as much humility as I could muster .

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Morgan, I agree completely. It is hard to show initiative if you have no idea what direction to go in.

@ Lillie

I’ve never been good at accepting praise I don’t feel like I’ve earned.

Looking forward to the rest of the story!

Thanks for the comment. I really want the series to paint a true and engaging picture of the career. There is the good, the bad, the mundane and the strange. I hope I can capture a bit of it all.

It’s this type of insight that lets readers know what a writing niche is “really like.” Kudos to you for doing a masterful job of peeking into the world of a Technical Writer.

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