As August closes, I’m starting the second week of my graduate class. Time to work on my first multimedia project. Introducing who I am as a technical professional communicator. For an online class it’s doubling as an introduction to my classmates and a self-evaluation of how I see myself as a professional writer.
I’ve been a classroom teacher for the last ten years, which has increasingly become a technology-based vocation. I’ve also spent 15+ years in IT user support, the “original” technical communication field. Around those jobs I’ve spent most of my “hobby time” writing and editing for publication both fiction and non-fiction. In the non-fiction field, I’ve executed projects as a journalist, as an editor, and as a publisher. In the fiction field, I’ve written, edited, and published print books and e-books in a multitude of genres, both my own writing and the writings of others.
I grew in expertise and responsibilities in each position to the point where I was managing and training others. I still remember in one HR interviewer saying, “Why don’t you just say this job is perfect for you already?” I’d been explaining to her the requirements and tasks of the job using examples from a previous job I had as a student. The details were things she had in her interview file under “we’d like to see…” but were not in the advertisement I’d answered.
So why am I not employed as a TPC? Why can’t I get past the job-search ‘bots with my resume to land an interview? One thing I think is I’m “out of date.” I don’t mean old, but it is a fact that job interview I mentioned above was 25 years ago when the world was a very different place technologically.
I’m hoping this course of study can help me figure out how to update my skills on paper, or recast my skills to appease the ‘bots, or help me network so I don’t have to go through the ‘bots in the first place.
(and if you read this thinking, how does this relate to writing, it’s all in the process, baby. I’m figuring out what to “bring out” for that multimedia project I mentioned for class. You’ve just been witness to me organizing some of my thoughts.)
Lara Zielinsky 