Four Important Personalities at your Next Professional Society Meeting

When (not if) you visit the local chapter of your professional society, you will likely get more than you expected.  Whether you visited the Society for Technical Communication for a presentation on single-sourcing techniques or the American Medical Writers Association for tips on presenting medical information, you will likely encounter four types at the meeting. 

1. The Critic rarely finds anything or anyone that measures up to the lofty standards formulated by this person.  Although there is value in identifying things that are wrong in a situation, becoming identified with this person by other society members might not help your networking.  So (if you tend not to see the faults where they occur) go ahead and touch base with this person, but don't spend the whole meeting absorbing toxic words.  If you tend toward the critical, spend more time with the rest of the crowd.  In the end, hopefully you will have a good balance of perspectives.
2. The Newbie can bring a new perspective and new energy to old practice; however, if you are new to the profession or new to the profesional society, you do not start with a lack of either.  So the fellow newbies that you find at society meetings should be sought out and recruited as fellow laborers.  Make yourselves accountable to one another in order to stave off the critics.  Make yourself conversational on other newbies' tech comm hot topics.  Encourage eachother to attend meetings. 
3. The Networker keeps current on key technologies and demonstrates that knowledge in conversation and in articles.  This person also keeps in touch with the key people that might want to hire technical writers and the writers who might recommend a colleague.  Therefore, these people are worth following and emulating.
4. The Volunteer keeps the society going.  Therefore, without this class of people, there is no society, no advancement of the field, no opportunities for the critics or newbies, and no network.  By learning the things that make up the volunteer and his or her work, you will be well on your way to building a technical communication career that will make a difference.

Four Things that You Can Expect as a Tech Writer

Once you transition from technical communication classes to real-world technical writing, there are at least four things that you can expect.

1. Your boss will not have had any experience with technical writing.  Most likely, your boss will have worked his or her through the workplace environment.  Therefore, your boss may be very familiar with managing manufacturing personnel.  Your boss may be an expert salesperson.  However, unless you work for a firm that specializes in technical writing, the chance that your boss will be familiar with localization, page design, usability, or any other technical communication topic will be minuscule.
2. Your boss will likely provide grammar edits (usually incorrect), word choices (usually jargon-based), and layout demands that will completely contradict everything that you were taught.  Because you are the new kid on the block, this will be an opportunity to learn both tact and assertiveness.
3. Your boss will have no idea of how long it will take to interview Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), compile a manual, have it reviewed, and send it to print.  Nonetheless, your boss will likely be very familiar with the contractual delivery schedule that everything sold by the company must meet.
4. Your proposals to improve processes will meet resistance.  Still, do not let that stop you from writing style guides.  Your company needs to know to improve intercultural communication (even in brochures and tech manuals) and you need to stand on your training as a technical writer.