Ask STC-Montreal: How Should I Improve My Skills?
Ask STC-Montreal | Posted April 16th, 2009
Got questions about technical communication? Ask the community of STC-Montreal. Send us your questions for publication. (Questions may be edited.)
Today’s question to STC-Montreal is about how improving one’s skills quickly in tough times.
Dear STC-Montreal,
I’m worried about the usefulness of my current skill set.
I’m not certain my current job will last, and I probably should think about extending my skill set. Or rather, I should have thought about it long before now. I’m comfortable with Word, FrameMaker and RoboHelp, but is that enough? What skills and tools would make me more marketable and attractive as an employee? XML and DITA? HTML and CSS? Marketing writing?
— Name withheld
Join the discussion. Leave your ideas and suggestions for “Name Withheld” in the comments below.
April 20th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Posted by Jim Royal.
My own personal experience suggests that branching out is a good thing. Learning different forms and styles of communication — e.g., procedure writing versus courseware writing versus marketing writing — can only help you become a better communicator. The more voices you have, the more ways you have to solve a given problem in technical communication. And that’s a skill that’s more valuable than expertise with one piece of software or another.
Nonetheless, HR people do look for specific tools in resumes. Which specific tools to study…? I’m going to leave that thread for someone else to pick up, as I have been away from straight tech writing for too long, and don’t know the current trends well enough.
Anyone else?
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Posted by Suzanne Gerrior.
I think that you have the tool set basically covered, although knowing HTML is always beneficial. However, I am finding that it is becoming more common for companies to ask if you have experience writing for the web and if you are aware of Web 2.0. Also, there seems to be a fair number of jobs that require training materials and eLearning. A list of software that’s fairly common:
MS Word
FrameMaker
Robohelp
Captivate
Photoshop
HTML