 Tech
writing is a much-talked-about emerging career option. MOHAN BABU
writes about the changes in recruitment trends for tech writers
as organisations now look for engineers—and not just English
graduates
As a technologist and a writer, I continue to
scan the landscape for happenings and trends in this vibrant field
and thought I’d dedicate this column to a trend that has been
in the West for a long time but has caught on in India during the
past four or five years. The trend I am talking about is the coming
of age of tech writing (that is TW for those in the vocation). I
had been observing the trends in this nascent sub-segment of IT
for a while and began looking more closely after reading the article
“Technical writing: On the ‘write’ note”
published in Express Computer. I also began researching this topic
by talking with a few Indian tech writers and then corresponding
with several others over e-mail.
What is tech writing and who are the pioneers
in India? Rahul Prabhakar, technical writer with the CRM group at
Oracle India, Bangalore feels that technical writing has come a
long way in India. He adds, “Not many people were fully aware,
especially in this part of the world, until the need for good documentation
was realised and hard-felt by several product development organisations
across the country. There was also a major initiative to control
the rising cost on the support and reduce customers’ dissatisfaction.
Now, several services and product development organisations hire
technical writers to streamline their line of business across all
verticals. But sadly, it still remains a support function in most
software development organisations.”
Drawing from the article, to quote Ravishankar
R, manager for the documentation group, Global Development Centre
at Cisco India: “Till the 1990s technical writing was unknown
in India. TCS was the first to recognise the need for technical
writers and began developing a documentation team. At first engineers
entered this field and they were responsible for technical writing.
The trend changed with market conditions and a combination of communication
and technical skills is becoming mandatory. Experience in using
new tools such as RoboHelp and FrameMaker for creating content became
an added advantage.”
 Though
a career in writing requires a strong grounding in grammar, fundamental
study of the language (English) and an understanding of the basics,
a stronger functional and technical focus is increasingly becoming
the norm. Where earlier people with liberal arts and English background
were preferred, companies are increasingly looking to hire engineers
and functional specialists with a flair for writing. Saravanan Manoharan,
a technical documentation Engineer with think3 Designs, a BTech,
Computer Science, graduate says, “Some five years back, to
be a technical writer an English background was a must. But with
emerging technologies, companies look for tech writers with engineering
background. Before, they used to recruit tech writers with English
background, ask them to undergo an induction programme for one or
two months to learn the technologies and then start the documentation
work. Now, they are trying to recruit tech writers with engineering
background, so they can shorten the induction programme to start
with documentation work right away.”
This trend in the increasing demand for high-quality
tech writers is only bound to continue as Indian organisations undertake
more high-end technology focused work. Increasing focus on product
development would mean a renewed interest in documentation and consequent
need for documentation experts. Similar will be the need for documentation
experts as we move up the value chain in other segments of the technology
spectrum too. This shift in focus also means that individuals are
increasingly opting for tech writing as a mainstream career choice
instead of landing a job in this field because of lack of alternatives.
Professional bodies like the Society for Technical Communication
(STC) and Technical Writers of India (TWIN) are also gaining prominence
with members using the common forums to network, further the profession
and seek better opportunities. There are also several yahoo groups
and online forums where technical writing professionals exchange
notes.
Academies and training institutions in several
major metros have also caught on the trend and are beginning to
provide training in this nascent field. Though such training courses
continue to be a small blimp in the whole IT training segment, they
are making strides nevertheless. As I mentioned towards the beginning
of this column, the tech writing is poised for takeoff and opportunities
abound.
Mohan Babu is a US-based software consultant
trying to find the ‘sweet spot’ where IT meets business.
E-mail: mohan@garamchai.com
|
