Market Changes Afoot:
What does this mean for technical communicators?

by Rahel Anne Bailie

One of my activities as a self-employed consultant is to monitor various job boards. The job boards I monitor include those that list positions and contracts for technical communicators, but more importantly, they include job boards for the industries we support: software development, engineering, and manufacturing. These job boards give me a daily temperature reading on the industry where I'm most likely to find clients and contracts. This past week, activity on the job boards has shot up. Between Nov. 21 and 28, 2003, one Vancouver job board had 163 jobs posted, with almost a dozen of them being communication-related jobs: technical writer, instructional designer, marketing communications manager. This encouraging news was confirmed by a consultant from Boston, whose business suddenly got very busy; all of the consultants with his firm are fully booked. Does this mean that the economy is bouncing back, and what does this mean for technical communication professionals? How can we reconcile this apparent economic recovery with the opposing trend of jobs moving from North America to Asian countries?

Certainly, the increase in North American development jobs is encouraging for North American technical communicators, just as the surge in product development in countries such Singapore, India, and China is encouraging for technical communicators there. Generally speaking, product development indicates a corollary need to communicate product features, through marketing communications, the user interface, user instructions, and internal documentation. For the most part, communication jobs are kept in close proximity of the development jobs. What we must keep in mind, however, is that as markets mature-and the software industry, where so many technical communicators are employed, is maturing along with all other industries-and profit margins narrow, companies continue to find ways to be competitive. We consumers like our software to be inexpensive and we hunt around for the absolute best deals. To provide us with those deals, companies need to find ways to cut costs, then cut costs more, and then cut costs even more. In an industry with few raw materials, where the largest cost is the brain power of its staff, the way to cut development costs is to cut labor costs. If work can be fit into a formula where labor costs are less, it will happen. From my Canadian perspective (keeping in mind that Canada was one of the first countries to which American companies sent their work "off-shore"), I see the current migration of jobs around the globe as inevitable. As much of the hard-goods manufacturing of the world has gone to China, thereby stocking North American dollar stores with inexpensive merchandise, so follows the knowledge industry, to satisfy the market demand for discounted products.

What this means for me as a technical communicator based in North America is that I need to make strategic career choices. If I choose to specialize in the type of work that is moving to another part of the world, I can look harder to do that type of work locally, or I can follow the work to wherever it goes, the way that actors migrate to Los Angeles. Or, I can look for the type of technical communication work that, by necessity, stays closer to home. I would tap into communities adjacent to technical communication, to encourage cross-pollination of ideas and to see what types of work suit someone with my abilities. I would look for work that doesn't come with the title "technical writer" but uses my skill set and qualifications. I would build my network outside of the technical communication community, getting to know the decision-makers in new areas and getting known there, as well. What it would mean for me as a technical communicator based in a country with an emerging economy is that I would want to build my credibility as a professional who delivers top-quality work that satisfies the demands of a head office that may be overseas. I would tap into the body of knowledge that exists in print and online, to find a way to exceed the documentation standards out there, and deliver work that works for clients and end users. I'd find out what makes the market tick, and figure out where my skills should be going. I would find a colleague or peer as a mentor. I would connect with existing technical communication communities, attend meetings, take courses, and subscribe to listservs. I'd cultivate a "buddy" relationship with a technical communicator in my area of interest, and find ways to share information about the demands of technical communication in various markets around the world. I'd look at trends and determine what's coming, so I can stay current and not lose my work in a year (or two, or five) to another country with even lower labor costs. I'd ensure that my company realizes every step of the way how much value I add to the product and the company, and make management see that I am a value contributor instead of a cost center.

The next few years will be very interesting times. From new tools, such as software that records your actions and writes the procedures (or instructions) based on what is recorded, to new trends that include moving jobs around the world in a global economy, we are continually made to examine our personal employment situations and our profession to look for interesting opportunities.

About the Author

Rahel has fifteen years of experience in the technical communication field and another fifteen years of business-to-business and management experience. Rahel is the STC Director/Sponsor for Region 7. She also presents workshops on volunteer leadership and technical topics around the Pacific Northwest, teaches in the Continuing Education department at the University of British Columbia, and speaks on a wide range of topics at conferences and as a guest lecturer. She can be reached at rabailie@intentionaldesign.ca.