"Right Said Fred" 

By Kalpana Ranganathan

A penchant for writing with a passion for technology saw Frederick Menezes (fondly addressed as Fredo or Fred in the community) venturing onto the road to technical writing. With a Bachelors in Mathematics and a Masters in Computer Applications, Frederick started off his career as a software programmer in a digital imaging software company in Goa. But just 4 days into his programming job, Frederick ’s attention turned towards technical writing by way of an offer from a small startup firm in Pune. This became the turning point of his career. He quit his coding job and took the turn to communication and from then on, there has been no looking back. As a correspondent for a Goan English daily during his student days, as a Radio Jockey for All India Radio, Panjim, Frederick Menezes had all along extensively explored the field of communication before settling down for Technical Communication as his career.

Frederick Menezes with Linda and Jinnelle.

He forayed into technical writing with Querisoft (now BindView) in Pune and when he quit, he was a Lead Technical Writer. He then joined VERITAS as a technical writer, scaled up, first to become a senior technical writer, and then to a curriculum development manager. For over two years now, he has been managing the support- readiness training curriculum development team that designs, develops, and produces blended learning solutions (e-learning and instructor-led programs) on Symantec products for their partners' technical support engineers. VERITAS is now a part of Symantec. And believe it or not, Fredo’s previous company, BindView, is also set to become a part of Symantec early next year!

To mentor and retain the motivation levels of his team and in turn to deliver the best possible solutions to the company’s audience is now Fredo’s challenge as a Manager. He does like mentoring junior technical writers and feels that a good combination of a relationship-oriented and a task-oriented approach produces the best results. But the challenge to the technical writer in him always remains as communicating the right information in the right manner. “Sounds simple but it’s really a tall order, and not all of us are good at it” he says. Facing this challenge is what he likes most about technical writing.

A mission put forth by the mentor…

“I feel that most writers in the field think that writing and content development is easy. There is too much focus on tools, which I think is the easiest part of a technical writer's job. But let me also clarify that there is a good number of skilled people in the field. What we really need is some strong technical writing courses on the academic front. It's good that there are a few courses sprouting here and there. Unfortunately, I think most of the current courses focus (again) too much on tools. Technical writing in not about tools. Hiring managers also need to tighten recruitment processes so that we only take candidates with good technical writng potential.”

Indus and its evolution…

A member of the STC, Frederick Menezes says it is great to be one. He was a member of the STC India Admin Council during 1999 - 2003 and spent substantial time on STC activities. This has enhanced his project and people management skills, which he has effectively used in his present role as a manager.    

“Exhilarating, fascinating, and challenging” - sum up Fredo’s experience of being President of the India chapter of STC during the year 2002. Many new STC India initiatives and activities took off during that period.

Indus has been Frederick’s brainchild! The motivation? Simple and straightforward: “First, I wanted to do it, Second, I thought I could do it”. He did it, and how!! So what was most interesting about Indus? Editing and the layout, he says. And the lasting value he added to Indus was its quality. As one of the pioneers of Indus he has observed its evolution with pride and commends Pawan Nayar and the current editors of Indus.

A dream inside a dream…

How about Fredo as a homemaker, a father and a dreamer? Linda is his spouse and his best friend. Jinelle, who completed an year this November, is the new girl in his life. He loves films and quizzing, and dreams of making a movie some day

Dream on Fredrick, for, there is something enriching in the results of your dreams. Indus is proof enough.