Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
January/February 2004

How I Became a Technical Writer

by Sarmistha Purkayastha
DMV Associate Editor

When I came to this country in 1994, I left behind a promising career in journalism. I was reporting for DataQuest, a leading IT magazine in India, when I met and married my husband. At that time, he was working for Oracle in the United States and was visiting family in India. The thought of starting a brand-new life in the prosperous United States far outshone the loss of a mere reporting job.

Bumpy Road from the Start

Only two months into my new life, the rosy picture I had painted in my mind started to fade. True, the cleanliness everywhere was impressive and the malls were more beautiful than I had imagined. I could see the fastest cars zoom past me and every possible comfort could be mine for the asking, but homesickness and loneliness gripped me. I missed everything that was familiar to me. Even the thought of just having given up a much sought-after occupation in India preyed on my mind.

Needing to engage myself, I called numerous local newspapers and journals in search of openings. Before long, I realized that in the absence of a journalism degree from this country or any related work experience, my chances of finding work as a reporter were very slim. It was then that I decided to train to become a technical writer. For me, it was the closest I could get to being a writer without going back to college full time. Besides, the money didn’t seem too bad.

A couple of years of basic computer skills classes, tools training, and technical writing courses later, I ventured out to find a tech writing job. It was a long and winding path. It was the late 1990s, just before the Internet boom and the start of the dot-com craze. There were a handful of jobs and very few that needed first-timers. My resume always got me interviews, but somebody else more qualified always ended up with the job.

I realized that I needed to find an internship, where I could get hands-on experience in preparation for an actual job. Again, they weren’t that easy to find. Most of them had requirements—for example, U.S. citizenship—that I lacked. Finally, I saw an opening for a writing intern at Ziff-Davis Television, which was looking for somebody to write and edit information about its TV shows on technology. The work didn’t seem very technical, but it did require writing skills and imagination. And I would have something to add to my resume. After all, Ziff-Davis was a pretty big name.

Detour Ahead

I got the internship at Ziff-Davis without much effort. While at Ziff-Davis, I continued interviewing for tech writing jobs, but somehow they didn’t click. The companies agreed that I had done enough writing, had good communications skills, and had the right training, but I didn’t know how to create a FrameMaker template, nor did I have a true technical background. Come on now! Somebody had to give me chance to learn all that.
At the end of the Ziff-Davis internship I was still without a job. A friend advised me to work through a temp agency. I had taken accounting classes, so I signed up with Accountants on Call. The very next week, I was auditing employee expense reports for a small software company. Although the task was easy, my heart wasn’t in it.

While still an accounting temp, I interviewed for an entry-level technical writer position at Boole & Babbage, which was looking for someone who could grow with the company. Convinced that I was a good fit, I went the extra mile at the interview. I came back from the interview content and was not surprised when I was called a week later for a second interview.

Meanwhile at my temp job, my supervisor handed me my final check. Although I really didn’t want to be an accountant, I still hadn’t heard from Boole & Babbage since my second interview almost one week earlier. I was beginning to feel jobless and hopeless again.

Destination in Sight

I registered with yet another temp agency for yet another accounting job, reconciled to the fact that a tech writer’s job was not to be mine. But that evening, as I was listening to my saved messages at home, I stopped short at one from my interviewer at Boole & Babbage. She wanted to make me an offer for the job. I remember playing the message several times before I could believe that I indeed was going to begin a tech writing career. The long and winding path had finally brought me to my destination.

Five years later, I’m still in the profession. I have changed companies and learned a lot at each job. I have become more technical, a better writer, and an efficient communicator. Yet, when I put myself in the shoes I was in five years ago, I can still feel how it all seemed a dream then.

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