Lessons from Linda: STC and Me—How I Got Here

Introduction

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn from someone who wondered about the value of being an STC member. I know that most people who read this post are already STC members, but sometimes even members need reminders on why we’re here. This month and next, I have decided to share my personal STC story. I hope that my own relative success in this delightful profession will interest you and help you stick it out if you’re thinking of moving on.

My story is a long one, so I’ll break it into two parts: (1) How I Found and Embraced STC and (2) How STC Supported and Embraced Me.

How I Found and Embraced STC

I grew up in a working-class family, the eldest of four kids.  I was book smart and had the advantage of a good public school education, but as a rebellious teen, I found myself alone with no family support immediately after high school graduation. So, rather than join my high school friends who were headed to college, I found myself a single mom working as a typist in a minimum wage job. Two things saved me: initiative to get ahead and colleagues who believed in me.

The initiative put me in night and weekend college classes; the colleagues coached me to keep moving ahead and looking for better jobs. My first years of employment were as a Federal civil servant, years that gave me the support to complete my bachelor’s degree and to receive an introduction to technical communication and STC! My first knowledge of technical writers was as a secretary to the manager of the Technical Information Division at the science and engineering research laboratory where I worked. I had two bosses while I was in that job—both of them recognized my better-than-average writing and thought that technical writing might be my salvation. It was.

It took more than a decade for me to get from high school to an entry-level job of editorial assistant, but that success led me directly to STC. My new boss was a smart, involved, incredible woman who was active in STC at the local and international levels as well as in the student chapter at San Diego State College. With her support, I began to attend meetings and work on local committees. Before long, I had the opportunity to attend my first STC Summit (called annual conferences back then), but only if I presented a paper! My first paper was a case study about how a team I was on developed and taught a 40-hour technical information training class to the scientists and engineers at our research lab. The paper was accepted and I did my first presentation in Seattle in May 1984.

Not only was that my first STC conference, it was the first time I’d ever stayed in a nice hotel, the first time I’d been on a business trip, and the first time I’d ever seen a lemon wrapped in cheesecloth! (I remember that distinctly because I was terribly embarrassed when I tried to unwrap it only to be told how the cheesecloth stopped the pits from getting into my iced tea!)

I think I fell in love with STC at that conference. From there, I joined committees, supported my boss in many of the things she was involved in, helped put on local STC events, and continued to make proposals to do sessions at conferences. It was the beginning of a long and still-prosperous journey.  I had found STC and embraced all that it offered me.

Read the next Linda’s Lessons in the STC Notebook to get part two!

“See” you then!