Chance encounter with a Technical Writer

I resumed work today after a long break of 20 days. Was feeling the blues since the time I woke up in the morning. I was wondering if I would actually have some work to do today since there was no project in the pipeline. My usual colleagues were all transferred to different places and I knew I would be there all alone without anyone to talk to. With all that in mind, I boarded the bus today to my place of work. As I entered the office, I was greeted by new faces and longed to see the old ones again. Nevertheless I sat back on my good old chair and started my day with best thing I could do. Checking mails!!! Nothing much to check actually since I was regularly checking them even while I was on leave.

I was just wondering what to do next when by chance I happened to sight a document on my desktop. It read as “Newsletter”. Out of curiosity I opened the same and it happened to be a newsletter of some Technical writing firm. I thought why not read the same. That’s when I chanced upon an article by Mr XXX( name withheld). I was so impressed by his article that I thought that I should get in touch with this person. I was sure that he could definitely give me insights into Technical Writing. Fortunately, he had mentioned his email id below the article written by him. I immediately sent him a chat invite and waited for his response. Wasn’t I thrilled when I got an immediate response from him?

I was a bit apprehensive of how to start the conversation with him. I thought he might be this big guy with a typical techie attitude. But was I surprised or what!! He started asking me general questions about my interests and hobbies just to know me better. In the midst of our conversation we realised that we have a lot of things in common. Our native place, our language etc. All that put me in the comfort zone. I was totally at ease with him. He gave me some really good tips about Technical writing. He encouraged me to update my blogs everyday with whatever I could so that I never lost touch with my writing which I had. Though our conversation was really brief, I could gather a lot of information. He signed out by encouraging me to get in touch with him as and when I needed. That’s all I needed to start my day.

I did pay heed to his advice and started writing for my blog. And yes I did realise that I still haven’t lost touch with my writing and it was only my apprehension that stopped me from writing. I don’t know how to thank him (should I call him my mentor?). Hope to get in touch with him soon.

Dream Job???

Whilst in the last years of college, I always used to be tensed about what profession I am going to take up. Commerce was something I was studying and it was something I never enjoyed studying. What an irony!!! Like a typical ideal commerce student, my next step was into the world of banking. Elders told me that this was the best field in terms of security and money. Let’s not take into consideration the odd jobs I did in between which had no connection to what I ever wanted to do in life. They were just my source of extra pocket money.

I happened to get into the best bank in the country after the numerous aptitudes and interviews I went through. I thought that this was my dream job. After 2 years in that organization I wondered if that was true. I hated every bit of my job since it was monotonous. Zero creativity. I was getting claustrophobic in there and wanted to get out of the same. Then I started my search for my dream job again. This time I was lucky enough to hit the target at the first interview. My second jump was into a BPO with a great salary and I thought now, this is it!!! Maybe this will interest me. I am still not sure if it was sheer desperation to get out of my first job which made me accept this in the first place. But a few months in there and I realized that the phrase “From frying pan to fire” was meant only for me. This was worst I could ever get into. This was the ideal job for a commerce student with an accounting background. But who the heck ever liked Accounts! I used to despise the same from the very beginning and now I realized what a bigger soup I am into. I finally woke up one day in the morning and realized what was wrong. Banking was not my cup of tea. I am not made for a 9 to 6 kind of monotonous job. I need more creativity and job satisfaction. A lesser pay package would do but definitely a better creative job.

Technical writing was a total alien concept for me. Since I was from a commerce background, I never had even heard about it. Once when I was surfing the net, I came across some articles about Technical Writing written by people whom I later realized were called Technical writers. I spent many days researching about the same. The only glitch here was that most of the technical writers were from the engineering background. So I was wondering if I could ever fit the bill. The only weapons of success that I probably possessed were my communication skills, my excellent command over English, and my flair for writing. Technical writing though not full fledged writing was still something that caught my attention. This was creative and I thought why not give it a shot!

With no background about the profession as well about the company I hopefully wanted to join, I went for the interview. After the 2 hours that comprised of the test and the interview I realized that this is something I want to do. But I wasn’t really sure if I would get through since all the others interviewees were from the engineering background. But I wanted to be there for two reasons. One since I liked what I was getting into and the other I wanted to get out of the mess I was already into. After 2 sleepless nights and 2 days of apprehension, I finally got a call and I heard what I wanted to hear. I was on cloud nine as though I had just received my first raise. After a months notice in my previous job, I finally stepped into the world of Technical Writing with full zeal and vigour. Now it’s been more than a year and I am thoroughly enjoying my profession. People in India are still not aware as to what us Technical writing all about. The awareness about this is at the base level. Technical writing as a profession is an ocean. Mastering the whole thing will take a lot of time. Nevertheless it’s a challenge. My knowledge today is still the tip of the iceberg; I still need to conquer the iceberg.