Where Do You Want to Work Today?

By Melanie Doulton

In the few years that I’ve been a technical writer, I’ve learned that this profession can be pretty flexible allowing you to work in different industries and locations almost seamlessly. Almost being the key word. Apart from the most obvious differentiating factor of geographical location, a host of other parameters affect our work habits. Parameters such as employment laws, local culture and corporate culture, personal situations, work ethics, and so on often have a significant impact on the work habits of technical writers and technical documentation teams.

And what will this understanding do for you? This information should help you:

• Figure out where you fall on the graph. Are you part of the norm for your region? Are you outside the norm? Where do you want to be?
• Make a decision about where you want to be on the scale either in your region or, if you’re planning a move, in another region.
• Have concrete information about the general profile of your future colleagues and the work environment in which you will be functioning, if you’re planning a move to another region.
• Have a ready profile of technical writers in different regions, if you have been charged with setting up a technical documentation team in a different location. This will reduce your time to set up and have a productive, functioning off-site team.
• Gain a better insight into the habits of technical writers in different regions, if you work in a geographically distributed team.

Quick Summary

In many ways, we function similarly across the world. Some of the highlights:

• A majority of those who responded work with geographically distributed teams, a reality I’ve known since the beginning of my career (74.4 percent Indian technical writers reported this fact, which is higher than reported by any other region.)
• Most of us work without much support staff in terms of editors, illustrators, indexers, and so on.
• Very few of us reported that we spend more than a third of our time on rework during a project. The main reason for rework is always changes in project scope.

There were some surprises, though:

• One happy surprise was that job satisfaction is very high all over. Over 85 percent responded that they were satisfied to very happy with their chosen profession, especially in Israel, Australia, and New Zealand, where it goes up to 93 percent.
• What is even more surprising is that Israel also has the highest stress levels with 29 percent reporting severe to extreme stress at work.
• Of those who took the survey, the highest percentage of technical writers in Australia, New Zealand, and India reported spending most of their time writing new documents as opposed to updating existing documentation.
• Over 50 percent of those who took the survey reported that they frequently or always experience changes in deadlines. The only exception was India, where only 26 percent reported having frequently or always experienced changes in deadlines.

For more detailed comparisons, see the table at the end of this article.

General Profile of Responses

The questionnaire was mailed to technical writers via mailing lists and discussion forums. The results of this study are based on the responses of 929 technical writers from various countries including North America, India, Europe, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. The questionnaire comprised 30 questions about the technical writer’s background and work habits.

Education

Over fifty percent of the people who took the survey are graduates and approximately 35 percent are postgraduates. Over 70 percent of the respondents are, not surprisingly, technical writers. The rest are managers, editors, multi-tasking super beings, or independents.

Australia, New Zealand, and India reported over 40 percent post-graduates, which is higher than reported for any of the other regions. Israel, Europe, and North America reported approximately 60 percent graduates.

Work Experience

With respect to work experience, one-third responded that they have been in the profession less than 5 years, another quarter have been at it between 6 and 10 years. Another third have been writing or been in the writing profession in the range of 11 and 20 years. The rest have over 20 years experience in this profession.

The fact that 74 percent of the Indian technical writers reported having 1 to 5 years experience is a strong indication of the relative newness of the industry in India. In comparison, in Australia, New Zealand, and North America, approximately 60 percent  reported having more than 11 years experience.

Industry

Over 60 percent of the respondents work in product companies, while about 25 percent work in service companies. Over 65 percent work in the computer or IT industry. The remaining respondents work in various other areas such as health and medical care, manufacturing, education or academia, and so on. Those who chose the ‘Other’ category specified the government contracts, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, and so on. Technical writers who work in multiple industries also chose this category.

Over 75 percent work onsite in the company that employs them. Only 12 percent work offshore. The rest work either from home, in a mixed model spending some time onsite and offshore, or work out of their own offices. Two thirds of the respondents work in geographically distributed teams.

Full Time and Contract Workers

As expected, 80 percent are permanent employees. Interestingly, Australia & New Zealand have the highest percentage of contractors billing hourly – approximately 25 percent. In contrast, India has the lowest percentage of contractors billing hourly – approximately 2.1 percent.

Size of Documentation Team

About 42 percent of us either work alone on projects or are the lone rangers in the company. In most of the regions surveyed, approximately 50 percent are lone rangers. In India, this percentage is drastically lower – 17 percent. Approximately 34 percent of the teams in India have more than four technical writers, a trend not seen in many other countries.

Ratio of Developers to Technical Writers

We work with development teams of all sizes across the board. In India, Europe, and North America, over 20 percent work with about 6 to 10 engineers at any given time. In comparison, 25 percent of writers in Australia and New Zealand work with a single developer.

(Second part of this article will appear in the July-August 2005 issue of Indus)

Melanie Doulton has been writing technical documentation for ten years. She has worked in India and France and is now a Lead Information Developer with BMC Software (India) Pvt. Ltd.

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