A Career in Technical Writing: Two dates to the prom

The Bullet Points

• In the world of contracting, the entire hiring process can take place over the phone
• Knowing the right tool (even a little) can get you the job
• Per diem is a fixed daily allowance for meals and/or lodging
• Beach time is payment for staying with a company but not actually going to work until they find more work for you
• Benefits such as health insurance and paid time off (PTO) come at a cost, and sometimes they are negotiable
• Recruiters always make the job sound great

The Road Not Taken

The first phone call I received that week wasn’t for a technical writing job. It was for a web development job at the local newspaper. The job made sense. I had some newspaper experience and I knew HTML. They wanted somebody who could convert their articles into HTML using a conversion program that would probably require a few on-the-fly tweaks. They brought me in for a job interview and it went well. I met the editor in charge of the online edition and we liked each other instantly. He was a nerd, just like me. We prattled on about HTML for far longer than anyone should.

The downside was the pay. The job would be part-time (25 hours a week) and pay about twelve dollars an hour. That would be barely enough money to skirt bankruptcy, much less get ahead. Still, the job seemed well-suited to my skills and the journalist in me liked the idea of working for the largest daily newspaper in town. The editor promised to call me the next day and let me know whether or not I got the job.

A Bunch of Calls in a Row

I was still dressed in my suit when I got home and the phone rang. I was hoping it was the editor, calling me early, but it was another gig entirely. The company calling was Wesson, Taylor, Wells & Associates. They were a contracting agency out of North Carolina that specialized in placing programmers in the health care industry. They wanted to know if I could interview for a technical writing job that day. I still had my suit on, so I said sure, just tell me where to go. You don’t have to go anywhere, the man said, I’m going to have the head programmer call you in about ten minutes. Eight minutes later, I was talking to the head programmer.

Once again, the interview went well. The programmer wanted to know if I knew anything about Speedware. I answered honestly that I had never heard of it. How about Cobol? Sure, I told him. I knew a little about Cobol. It was a structured language used for building reports and such. Well, it turned out that Speedware was a lot like Cobol, a programming language I knew “a little” about. He asked if I could read Cobol. I told him I had programmed in Basic, Fortran and Assembly language. Reading code didn’t frighten me. Either my answers were good or they were desperate, because the next thing I knew I had an offer.

All the Work I Could Handle

Actually, I had two offers. While I was on the phone with the head programmer, the newspaper editor called (a day early) to offer me the web job. The recruiter for WTW simply had more to offer though. He could either pay me $20 an hour without benefits or $29,000 a year salary with benefits (paid medical, holidays, paid time off). If I took the $29,000 I would be considered a regular employee of WTW with a permanent job, even though I would be contracting for a local health insurance company. When this gig ended, he explained, they would find me another. It might not be in the same city, but if I moved I would get per diem, which is a daily (tax free) allowance to cover living expenses. In the meantime, if they hadn’t landed me a gig, I would be paid beach time. Beach time means that you keep getting paid even though you aren’t currently working on a contract. You could go to the beach if you wanted. He told me WTW had plenty of work to offer, and that I would probably be working steadily for years.

I took the full-time gig, and using the power of the other offer (without revealing the pay) I eventually negotiated the salary up to $35,000 with benefits. In addition, because I told him I might take the newspaper job as well (it would be nights) he offered to pay me to redesign the WTW web site, writing new web copy and creating a new visual look. Suddenly, I had all the work I could handle. I also had to fire up the fax machine…

Further Reading

• Evaluating a Job Offer by the US Department of Labor: Advice on researching a job or a company.
• Employee benefits by Wikipedia: A rundown of the general benefits that might be available for a job.
• How to Find Technical Writing Jobs by John Hewitt: My step-by-step guide to the process.

Questions

• Is money the primary consideration in a job search?
• If one job paid significantly less than another, what other factors might lead you to take the lower-paying job?
• What experiences have you had with job recruiters?

Next Time

I’ll discuss some of the things that happen after you take the job but before you actually start the job.

What is a Technical Writing Contractor?

What is a Technical Writing Contractor?

Because I am working as a technical writer through a contract, rather than as a regular employee, there are some situations unique to my position. In the technical writing industry, many writers work on a contract basis through an agency. This type of employment is called contracting, although you may also hear it called consulting. I prefer the term contracting because I associate consultants with people whose job is to advise a company on one issue or another. That may or may not describe a particular technical writing assignment.

The Microsoft Rule

At the company I am working at now, one of the situations contractors have to navigate is a rule that they are only allowed to work at the company for up to one year. After that, there must be a six-month break before they can work at the company again. This may seem like an odd rule, but it was implemented because of a court ruling against Microsoft a few years back.

Because Microsoft offered so many benefits to employees, such as stock options and health benefits, to save money they filled out projects with independent contractors who worked strictly for money and had no benefits. These contractors often worked at Microsoft for several years. Most of these contractors wanted to be regular employees with benefits, but Microsoft would only hire them as contractors. Eventually, these contractors got together and sued Microsoft. The court ruled that Microsoft treated them as employees in every other definition of the term, and thus needed to provide them benefits as well.

That ruling had a chilling effect in the contractor industry because it made companies much more wary of long-term contracts. At my current company, for example, a fellow technical writer is bumping up against her one-year limit. She must seek work elsewhere, even though the department is satisfied with her work and has plenty of need for her work. It is possible that they will hire her permanently (another writer here went from contract to permanent) but if the company does not hire her then they will lose her. In six months, she may be back or she may have moved on. You never know.

Technical Writing Contractors have Clients, not Employers

There are some advantages to being a contractor. One advantage is that the company you work at is more a client than an employer. Your real employer is the agency that pays you. It is in that agency’s best interests to keep you working. That means you get an account manager whose job is to make sure you and the company you work at are happy. This means that if you have a problem with the company you are at, there is someone you can go to who is on your side. For the most part, you should not need that assistance, but the couple of times I have needed it, I was glad to have it.

Technical Writing Contractors Move from Job to Job

Another advantage to contracting, for me, is that I like prefer to put myself in new situations. I find that, after about a year, I get tired of working in the same place doing essentially the same job. Every time I have stuck it out at a job for more than a year, I have found my attitude deteriorates quickly. If I were to have taken a string of regular jobs, leaving after a year would create a spotty work record and plenty of angry ex-employers, but most contracts are for a year or less, so there are no hard feelings when you leave.

The downside to this is that you are continually looking for your next job. There can also be gaps in which there is no work at all. If you do not put some of your money aside, this can be painful. The only extended period of unemployment I have had was after the dot-com bubble burst and the tech market went into a depression (the country as a whole may have been in a recession, but I think recession is too mild a term for what happened in the tech industry). Now that the industry has somewhat recovered, work seems to be picking up. I doubt it will rise to nineties levels in the near future, but it is now possible to find work again.

Contract Technical Writers Submit Invoices

One weekly ritual a contractor goes through is having your supervisor sign your timesheet / invoice. Because the company you work at is your client and not your employer, the agency bills your client for your services. The client must look over your hours and approve them. Usually this is a painless process. The most trouble you usually will run into is if your supervisor is out of the office when you need it signed. That is why it is always good to work out a backup in case the supervisor is away. Usually the backup is your supervisor’s supervisor, but it may be anyone in the office who has the company’s trust.

Occasionally, you will run into a supervisor who may use the signing moment as a power play. This is rare. My worst moment was when a boss told me I had listed too many hours. The problem was that the agency had gone to a twice-monthly billing cycle instead of a weekly one. This meant that most timesheets were for an 11 or 12 day work cycle. My supervisor had looked at the hours (88) and assumed I had tried to slip in some overtime. It was only a misunderstanding, but my boss brought it up in a rude way, as if I was trying to rip the company off. I never forgave him for that lack of trust and respect. Luckily, that company frequently changed managers. Within a month, a new person was signing my timesheets.

Contract Technical Writers are not Treated Like Employees

One difference in the way contractors are treated at this company is the way cubicles are distributed. This company is devoted to cubicle culture. While the upper management may have offices, I have not seen one. All of the managers I have met have cubicles. They must look at those blue-gray fabric walls just like the rest of us. The difference here, is that regular employees get their own cubicle, but contractors must split a cubicle between two people.

This strategy certainly runs afoul of Demarco and Lister’s PeopleWare recommendations. Single cubicles are tiny, and shared cubicles are a little larger, but none of them are big enough for someone to work in comfortably. I run into problems because I have a slight case of strabismus, which means my eyes will cross if I get too tired or there is not enough visual stimulation. Because there is not enough room in a cubicle to refocus your eyes on distant objects, I have to get up frequently and stare out a window for a minute so that my eyes get to see distances and colors again.

On the plus side, my office-mate is a quiet woman. I do not think we’ve had a conversation that has lasted over a minute. This makes it a little easier to share the office. I have been in shared quarters before with people who were incapable of staying quiet. It cost the company money because I am not nearly as effective when someone is telling me a story about how he has decided to cook a turkey each week to save food money (an actual involuntary hour-long lecture from a former office-mate.)

Another way in which contractors differ from employees is often in their badges. Contractors generally get different security badges than regular employees. For example, this company uses a green badge for contractors and a blue badge for regular employees. In fact, regular employees are often referred to as blue- badges. In addition to being green, my badge lists my contract agency. Anyone can quickly identify me as a contractor.

Contract Technical Writers Attend Fewer Meetings

One advantage to contracting is that you end up in fewer meetings. This can vary from company to company, but overall you will find yourself in fewer meetings than the harried regular employees. There are generally whole layers of meetings people must attend just because they are employees. This includes management briefings and directional meetings. Generally, managers do not want contractor input and that is just a well. Those are the dullest meetings I have ever attended. At this company, I have not stepped foot in a meeting room since I was hired. I know exactly what work I have to do, and updating my boss is as simple as an e-mail or a two- minute conversation. I love it.

Additional Resources

• Opportunities in Technical Writing
• How to Get a Job in Technical Writing — A 7-Step Guide for Students
• How to Write a Freelance Writer’s Invoice

First Day of a Technical Writing Contract

Technical Writing Contract

Rule number one for a contractor is to never panic about what happens your first day. First days are naturally chaotic, and often companies are not fully prepared for you. Because contractors are usually brought in to solve a particular problem, the people are anxious to get you started, but companies, especially large ones, are not geared for quick action.

My first day starts at 5:45 in the morning. This is when I arrive to begin NCO (New Contractor Orientation). Most companies I’ve worked for don’t have anything like this, but this company is obsessed with safety. Every contractor who starts with the company must sit through at least the first part of the safety lectures and videos. Because I am working in an office and I do not work with hazardous chemicals (Except white-out and toner) I only have to attend until 10:00. Factory workers and clean room workers attend afternoon sessions as well.

The instructor for these safety lessons is a former naval officer who taught helicopter pilots how to survive a dunking, which is when a helicopter flips over upside-down into the ocean or other deep water. He speaks in the loud, staccato bursts you would associate with a drill sergeant, but is a nice guy who keeps the class moving. Because the company I’m working for does use many dangerous chemicals in its manufacturing process, there are many things even an office worker should know. Also, there is a lecture about harassment, sexual and otherwise. Over the course of the orientation, they process my paperwork and by the time I leave there I have a shiny new badge that will give me all the building access I need to do my job.

Technical Writing Orientation

After orientation I drive to the corporation’s other campus, where my daily job will be. It’s a huge campus with about ten big buildings. The building I work in has its own convenience store and cafeteria. One of the people I interviewed with comes down to meet me and gives me a short tour before heading to my cubicle. We go by the supply room and I pick up a notepad and a couple pens. After that, I write down the name and job function of everyone I meet. I have never been good with remembering names off the top of my head, and this gives me a reference that I can look back on later.

The first problem to emerge is the most typical. My computer is not ready yet and neither is my cubicle. They set me up at a temporary computer, but it doesn’t have the required software and nobody seems to have administration rights to the computer so we can’t install any new software either. There are about four key pieces of software I need to do my job, and the computer only has one of them. The problem is compounded because one of my bosses will be out of town all next week, and the other will only be in town on Monday and Friday.

While they scramble to solve the computer problem, I spend several hours looking over printouts of what I should be accessing online. I also read the company technical authoring guide; it goes over document formats, common product technical terms and includes a brief style guide. Many companies/departments don’t have one of these, so I consider is a good sign that this one does.

As the day progresses, I get moved to a small computer lab, where I can at least access the documents I need to read. My bosses also manage to procure for me the glossy marketing guides that have been produced for the products. One of the bosses immediately finds a technical flaw in their documents and brings it back to them.

Technical Writing Glitches

As the day winds down, my bosses figure out a basic solution to my computer problems that will, they hope, be put into place on Monday. Towards the end of the day I have one of my bosses sign my time sheet (Even though it was my first day, it was still a Friday) and I faxed it in to my contracting agency. Ten hours after I walked into the safety meeting I got to go home.

Overall it was a pretty typical first day. There will always be initial confusion, both for you and the company, and it is a good idea to take everything in stride. Just make sure you know four things by the end of the day: who your boss is, how to get in and out of the building, where the bathrooms are, and what the dress code is. If another week passes before they can get most of your problems fixed, then you can start to panic.

Additional Information

• Technical Writing Contract
• Technical Writer Hourly Rates and Salaries
• Hiring Contract Technical Writers