By Wolf DreamWalker
Two major themes permeated STC's Career Day: first, know you audience; second know yourself.
The answer to "Who is our audience?" is ... everyone. The beauty of being a technical communicator is that the opportunities for work are virtually limitless. Clarity of thought and action are crucial to unravelling and understanding the exponential complexities of today’s technology. Everybody needs us - even those in non-technical industries.
Knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us has embraced the role of a technical communicator at least once. This role is not related to any job title, such as Technical Writer or Information Officer. Rather, it is an extension of what we are and do. As, Stacey, one of my fellow students put it so succinctly “We take complicated stuff and turn it into simple stuff."
The question, then, is not whether we are or should be technical communicators but how can we be more effective. As one of our speakers, Rob Hanna, clarified, we need to develop the seven habits of a highly effective communicator, namely: confidence in ourselves, passion for our work, an undying curiosity of the world around us, creative problem solving, non-stop growth in skills and knowledge, and comfort in the midst of chaos.
Networking, résumé writing, and interviewing are excellent activities for developing and enhancing these seven habits since they necessitate developing a deep understanding of ourselves and the needs of our audience.
The primary purpose in networking according to Patrick McCormack is to “.... embody the potential of a positive experience;" that is, for our audience. And the only way to do this is to get to know the people we are talking to, talk their talk, and develop an affinity with their view of the world.
Hanna’s seven habits are also revealed in the use of key words in our résumés, according to Pam Peterson. Key words let our audience know that we are attuned to their needs while enticing it to prevue illustrations of how we have met similar needs in the past.
Furthermore, Andrew Brooke stressed that these habits are exhibited in how we prepare for a successful job interview. We need to be proactive in finding everything we can about our audience's values and needs. The interview, itself, is simply the arena in which we reveal our understanding of that audience and demonstrate how our skills, knowledge and background can meet its needs.
Know myself ... know my audience. Enough already! I got the message.
