From "I Hated Writing" to "It’s a Pretty Awesome Profession"

By Jennifer Garry | Member

As a student in high school and college, I was told several times that I should be a writer. My parents thought that I should combine my writing skills with my love of photography and become a photojournalist. All my English composition teachers and professors said things like, "Have you ever thought about being a writer?" There was only one problem: I. Hated. Writing. Every paper I had ever written was last minute. I couldn’t stand writing rough drafts and then proofreading and then making changes and then doing it all over again. It was almost painful to write papers. Like forcing a 10-year-old to sit and watch Dateline with his grandma. I could not wait to get my English composition classes over with.

I ended up going to college for a couple of photography degrees, one of which required an industrial electronics course that was only offered in the robotics department. I aced the course and transferred to the robotics and automated systems program after completing my photography degrees. After school I began an internship at a company that designs, builds, and services automated packaging equipment and integrates robotic systems. In 2007 I was hired as a full-time service technician.

When the economy fell, the company tried to keep as many employees as possible by spreading people out on various tasks. I was elected to help our part-time contract technical writer, Kim, with documenting changeover procedures for machine reference manuals. Kim said she knew right away that I was a good writer. I became one of her SMEs and did some writing when she needed help. As sales increased, Kim needed more and more help, and I was (surprisingly) more and more willing to step up. I was actually enjoying writing. It turns out that I enjoy the challenge of explaining complicated machinery to users who likely do not have an automation background.

Kim was (and still is) an amazing mentor. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was being groomed for a transition into full-time technical writing. I worked on the production floor and traveled for service between writing procedures and sequences for Kim. Sales continued to increase, and soon I was working full time as a technical writer. I worked with Kim to update existing manuals, create new manuals, and do side jobs for other departments. Eventually I assumed some managerial responsibilities, such as handling all the customer requests and interactions that were related to documentation.

About two years ago, our company began putting some serious time and effort into creating a formal training program for our customers. I fully believe in everything we are doing in our formal training development, and it’s incredibly exciting to be involved in building something like this from the ground up. Being involved from the beginning has also created a strong sense of pride; I take all of the compliments (and criticisms) to heart, and protect our materials like they’re my prized possessions. So far, we’ve had nothing but excellent feedback on the formal training sessions we’ve delivered.

Today I am the technical publications and training supervisor, and my responsibilities have continued to grow. My days can include (but are most definitely not limited to!) working with software engineers to gather programming information, with mechanical engineers to get operational information and drawings, with service technicians to understand processes and changes to equipment, and with the sales department on quoting training sessions and strategizing on training sales tactics (I secretly want to put this list in bullet form). I also develop quick references and training tools, write content for new reference manuals, and proof updates and changes to existing manuals. Needless to say, I have enough to keep me busy. Sometimes I miss the long days of just pure writing, but I still have the opportunity to write content while managing the challenges of a relatively new but impactful department that has grown to three people.

If 10 years ago someone had asked what I wanted to pursue for a career, I would have never, not in a million years, replied with "technical publications." As it turns out, it’s a pretty awesome profession.