{"id":305,"date":"2014-03-16T19:34:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T19:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=305"},"modified":"2018-08-10T20:53:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T20:53:38","slug":"techwriterculture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/topicstoanalyze\/rhetoric-an-introduction\/techwriterculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Reading the Culture in Technical Writer Ads<\/h1>\n<p>Although we might be able to generalize about many approaches to technical communication among fields (medicine, science, engineering, etc.), we can&#8217;t claim universals exist. Additionally, we can&#8217;t claim there&#8217;s a universal culture among or even within various technical fields. The organizational cultures of two technical firms could be vastly different, and one&#8217;s success in landing and keeping the job will depend on both being able to perform technical writing duties and being able to handle the organizational culture.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"BAEsystems\"><\/a>Below are two ads for technical writers posted several years ago (so the positions have most likely been filled). Let&#8217;s read the culture by reflecting upon the position descriptions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.applyhr.com\/12720566\"><strong>BAE Systems<span style=\"font-family: Verdana\">&#8211;Accessed 2\/06\/2009<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Technical Writer<br \/>\nWashington Navy Yard, DC United States<\/p>\n<p>BAE SYSTEMS is looking for a talented Technical Writer \/ Editor to join a team of talented professionals. Our mission is to integrate traditional technical writer and editing functions into a fast pased intelligence community mission.<\/p>\n<p>Position Description:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"background: yellow\">Work with the Customer in a production support branch assisting in the production and dissemination of finished geospatial intelligence information.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Work with customers to determine appropriate products for disseminating intelligence manuscripts.<\/li>\n<li>Edit documents and manage the production of Customer briefing materials and visual aids, and other products, as required.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure classification markings provided by customers are appropriate and properly applied.<\/li>\n<li>Conduct final reviews of text, graphics, and other formats for Customer intelligence products.<\/li>\n<li>Coordinate and disseminate finished intelligence products as required. All work shall be tracked and completed within established timelines.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background: yellow\">Provide quality control in accordance with Customer policy and standards for intelligence products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Attend regularly scheduled production support meetings and stay current with ongoing production support initiatives.<\/li>\n<li>Generate, format, and release electronic reports using a variety of computer systems and applications.<\/li>\n<li>Review intelligence products to ensure consistency with Customer standards and guidelines for reporting, classification, and releasability.<\/li>\n<li>Enter appropriate codes, identifiers, and keywords into the appropriate archival databases.<\/li>\n<li>Formulate simple queries for relevant databases.<\/li>\n<li>Verify that documents and products are appropriately classified.<\/li>\n<li>Produce publications in accordance with Customer standards, style guidance and publication policies.<\/li>\n<li>Provide advice and\/or edit documents for logic, clarity, comprehensiveness, relevance and organization, format, flow, grammar, punctuation, and spelling for compliance with Customer standards, style guidance, and publication policies.<\/li>\n<li>Record changes in hardcopy and softcopy and, when necessary, communicate changes to customers by using online editing functions.<\/li>\n<li>Perform daily production quality control procedures.<\/li>\n<li>Resolve work-related technical problems.<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrate customer service excellence by clearly and concisely communicating work status, methods, instructions, problems, requirements, options, and concerns with team members, managers, and customers within the Customer Community.<\/li>\n<li>Participate in meetings with customers, team members, contractors, and others to exchange information, make decisions, and\/or provide updates.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background: yellow\">Support the office and other branches in accomplishing the Customer&#8217;s overall mission, including expedite crisis work, special assignments, and ad hoc asking on variously scheduled arrangements.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a name=\"Intuit\"><\/a>Organize personal work schedule to facilitate task completion and maximize use of time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-family: Verdana\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.intuit.apply2jobs.com\/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&amp;RID=67399\">Intuit&#8211;Accessed 2\/06\/2009<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>Job Title: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">Technical Writer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>Job Category: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">Engineering<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>City: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">Mountain View<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>State\/Province: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">California<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>Country: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">United States<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\" nowrap=\"nowrap\"><strong>Primary<br \/>\nResponsibilities: <\/strong><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\">Intuit is seeking an information designer to help make its leading personal financial software understandable and easy to use. You\u2019ll create user assistance wherever it works best; in the interface, in help systems, on the Web \u2013 wherever you anticipate a need. <span style=\"background: yellow\">We\u2019re looking for someone who can think about our products end-to-end to help us deliver the best user experience possible.<\/span> You&#8217;ll work on cross-functional teams of programmers, product managers, engineers, and usability experts &#8212; all devoted to improving the customer experience.Great verbal communication and influencing skills are a must.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>You\u2019d be a great fit for our team if you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can turn complex finance terminology into easy to understand language.<\/li>\n<li>Think outside the book. You know that great assistance is delivered when a user needs it, not by searching in an index.<\/li>\n<li>Understand that less is more; the right sentence is more powerful than the wrong paragraph.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background: yellow\">Have suggested UI changes to improve the product instead of creating long Help topics.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Have exceptional technical writing skills and a proven track record of creating messaging, online Help systems, and in-product text that makes complex subjects understandable to end users.<\/li>\n<li>Are flexible. Be able to let go of your work and change priorities as needed.<\/li>\n<li>Understand how to use diplomacy to influence others on a cross functional team<\/li>\n<li>Aren\u2019t scared of technology. <span style=\"background: yellow\">We tread boldly into the future by using a variety of engineering-centric tools.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Actually believe you can make a difference in the lives of customers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As an information designer, you\u2019ll determine the need and create the best assistance including UI text, help topics, messaging and more. <span style=\"background: yellow\">As in integral part of the development team, you\u2019ll help keep the team mindful of your user \u2013 every step of the way.<\/span> As a member of the broader information design team, you\u2019ll gain area expertise and become a mentor to other writers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Extensive experience designing information sets and writing onscreen user assistance.<\/li>\n<li>Demonstrable HTML skills. You\u2019re comfortable using a text editor to write content.<\/li>\n<li>Strong project management and scheduling skills.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background: yellow\">The curiosity to troubleshoot. Your first instinct is to fix it yourself.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Experience working with and influencing a cross-functional development team<\/li>\n<li>Experience writing web assistance content<\/li>\n<li>Experience blogging and moderating online forums<\/li>\n<li>Experience working in an agile development environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ooh\/media-and-communication\/technical-writers.htm\">Bureau of Labor Statistics information on Technical Writers from the Occupational Outlook Handbook (2016)<\/a>.<br \/>\nBureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, <cite>Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition<\/cite>, Technical Writers,<br \/>\non the Internet at <a id=\"anch_261\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ooh\/media-and-communication\/technical-writers.htm\" target=\"_new\">http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/ooh\/media-and-communication\/technical-writers.htm<\/a> (visited <em>July 07, 2016<\/em>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading the Culture in Technical Writer Ads Although we might be able to generalize about many approaches to technical communication among fields (medicine, science, engineering, etc.), we can&#8217;t claim universals exist. Additionally, we can&#8217;t claim there&#8217;s a universal culture among or even within various technical fields. The organizational cultures of two technical firms could be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-305","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-4V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4953,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/305\/revisions\/4953"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}