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A Career in Technical Writing: End games

Published on July 22, 2008 by in Writing

Bullet Points

  • Sometimes all your work can be erased by a business decision
  • Companies will never pay technical writers as well as programmers
  • Take pride in your work, even if it never quite comes out the way you want it to
  • On your last day, shake everyone’s hand and smile

The final push

As my year contract at PHPS edged towards its conclusion, I felt as if I was working at an entirely different company than the one I had started with. The contractors I had begun my job with were long gone. The manager I had started with, and the one that followed him, were gone as well. The company had worked its way through a merger just a few months after I arrived, had then attempted a second merger which fell through, and finally was bought wholesale by a much larger company. As my stay concluded, and I delivered my final manuals, I found out that the entire reporting system that I had spent the year documenting was to be replaced with the new company’s system. Within three months, nothing I worked on would be in use.

This didn’t stop me from making my pitch for a full-time job. I had successfully met all of my deliverables and I was perfectly capable of documenting whatever took its place. My final manager strung me along until the last week. He had me research the going pay rates to justify my salary request ($40,000 a year), give him my resume and write up some additional documentation of their payment processes. I did everything he asked, but I don’t think I ever really expected him to give me a job. He didn’t. He said that they couldn’t afford me.

I was angry. I was angry because I had made it clear over a month earlier that if they couldn’t afford me, I wanted to know quickly so I could look at other options. He had told me it wasn’t an issue as long as I could prove my salary request was well within industry standards, which I had done. I didn’t confront him though. I shook his hand and thanked him for trying. There were still a lot of people I liked at the company, and I didn’t want to burn my bridges.

Lunching and number crunching

It wasn’t until my going-away lunch with my friend Rick, one of the programmers, that I found out how doomed my salary request was. I told him that I had asked for $40,000. He shook his head. “I’m a programmer and I only make $35,000.” It was sad but true. The high-dollar contractors had been replaced by a guy happy to make $35,000 a year, at least $20,000 less than the least experienced contract programmer had made. As a parting gift, I told him that Lynn, the ex-lead programmer, was now making six-figures and working from home. Rick left PHPS within two months to become a well-paid contractor. I’d like to say the company learned a lesson, but by then they were looking to get rid of the SpeedWare programmers anyway.

My final day at PHPS was quiet and pleasant. I had completed all of my assignments, and spent most of the day saying goodbye to people and cleaning out my cubicle. I had hoped to stay, but in the end I was happy to be leaving. I had met my goals and I had learned a lot. I had proven to myself that I could make a living as a technical writer. Also, I was still employed by my contract agency, even though they had yet to find me another job. I was about to experience beach time…

Further Reading

How to Leave a Job on Good Terms by by Jason W: Tips for leaving the workplace with your relationships intact.

Rules of Consulting by Chad Myers: Don’t expect the customer to be rational. If the customer didn’t have problems, they wouldn’t have needed to hire you.

Discussion Questions

  • What is the most involved project you’ve ever completed?
  • Have you ever been shocked to find out how little a co-worker makes?
  • What was your most interesting final day at a company?
 
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12 Comments  comments 
  • John Hewitt

    @ JoniB

    I’ve always hoped that someone would kick me out the next day when I announced I had a new job, but they’ve always wanted the two weeks.

  • John Hewitt

    @ Jeanne,

    If I have learned one thing in my many corporate years, it is that you can’t rely on companies to act with logic. I would have been open to negotiation, but I believe the manager was simply trying to keep his options open “just in case”.

  • JoniB

    My most interesting last day at a company was coming in to an empty office and finding a nasty “good bye and don’t let the door hit you on the way out” note on my desk. They apparently took my moving on as a slap in the face. I picked up the last of my personal items and left the building keys on the desk. I smiled my whole drive home knowing that I had made a great decision in leaving that company.

  • http://www.writersnotes.net/ Jeanne Dininni

    John,

    It seems odd that the company didn’t negotiate your potential salary with you–rather than simply asking you to submit a salary request and then deciding whether to take it or leave it without discussion. And it was inconsiderate of them to string you along until the last minute when they likely knew what they intended to do long before you did–more so because you had specifically asked them to let you know right away so you could find another position.

    Glad to hear, though, that after your initial–and justifiable–anger, you had a pleasant end to that chapter of your technical writing career.

    Thanks, again, for an engaging series!
    Jeanne

  • John Hewitt

    Jeanne,

    If the company did everything that was in their own interest, that would actually seem logical to me. I may not like what they did, but there would be a guiding principal. For the most part though, companies tend to do many things that are completely contrary to their own interests. Companies are run by people, and the limitations of the people create the limitations of the company.

  • http://www.writersnotes.net/ Jeanne Dininni

    John,

    Of course, what the company considers logical according to its own frame of reference (read, “its own self-interest”) may not be the same thing the employee or contractor considers logical, appropriate, or fair.

    Jeanne

  • http://altmilan.blogspot.com Milan Davidovic

    “Within three months, nothing I worked on would be in use.”

    One way to avoid feeling that the effort was a waste (not that John necessarily did, but I know others who have) is to anticipate this sort of thing and figure out what value you want to get from the effort or process itself.

    –Milan

  • Pingback: Personal Essays on a Technical Writing Career — by John Hewitt | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

  • Ewan Kennedy

    What the discussion reminded me of was the lessons I’ve learned about responsibility. There’s no point worrying about things you can’t control (in this case like the continuing use of the system) so I always focus on what I can control (like the documentation). If you succeed with the things you can control then you should never be disappointed. The most involved I’ve been in a project was leading the turnaround of my employer’s company from the brink of collapse to being healthy again. I fought passionately for several years and succeeded although I knew throughout my fight that it might have failed due to reasons beyond my control. If it did fail, then I had several fall back plans in place (e.g. lead a buyout, explore other employment options, start my own business) so I took responsibility for every outcome as far as was possible and guarded against disappointment by covering every angle.

  • John Hewitt

    @ Ewan,

    What you are saying is certainly true. I worked hard to do a good job. I considered it my job to give them what they asked for, what they did with it was their business. I concentrated on my work, not their business. Still, there is an emotional toll to be paid when you see your hard work get thrown out the window.

  • Ewan Kennedy

    @ John

    Yes, in reality, I suppose any human would have been disappointed in those circumstances which may have been impossible to predict.

    By the way, I think your site is superb – everything from structure, presentation, content and participants. The tone is really professional, much more so than any other site I’ve seen of this genre.

  • John Hewitt

    @ Ewan

    Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. Writing about something as personal as my career and my career choices has been an interesting experience so far.