So You're Thinking of a Career in Technical Communication Part I

When I first chose to pursue part-time studies in technical communication, while presuming I would be able to make some sort of career out of it, I thought carefully about how I got to that point in making such a critical decision that would potentially determine the 'happiness curve' for the rest of my adult life.

First, a bit about me. About 5 years ago, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree - majoring and minoring in social science subjects that I had a genuine interest in, but had no intent to pursue a career in. I've thought about going into teaching since I loved the idea of standing in front of a group of students, and doing my darndest to inspire and enlighten the knowledge-deprived. To get acceptance into the Faculty of Education, I needed to put in my volunteer hours at the local public school. Unfortunately, volunteer doesn't pay very much, so I had to get a proper job. Months later, I found myself working at a 24-hour call center for the largest dot-com in e-commerce.

It was my first taste of hi-tech, e-commerce, call center work culture, ridiculously high performance demands, and the 'diplomacy and politics' behind customer service. For the most part, I enjoyed my time and learned a lot there; however, after one and a half years of abandoning my initial plans of becoming a teacher without any regret, three things became clear to me: 1) I enjoyed interacting with customers, and showing them how to perform the tasks they needed to succeed 2) I needed to recognize my other passions and somehow integrate them with number one 3) To open up career opportunities, I needed more qualifications (translation: more schooling).

In the Spring of 2005, I took evening courses in management accounting and human resources at BCIT, a local polytechnic college, exploring what the business world had to offer me. Seriously now, isn't that the usual route that most lost souls take? Anyhow, in spite of learning wonderful things like balancing ledger accounts, and that poor interpersonal communication is the root of all office squabbling (therefore causing a detrimental drop in worker productivity), I came to realize that I was pretty decent at writing reports and analytical material. And I was probably the only one who liked writing them in my project group. In fact, since writing my last and final research paper with teary eyes shortly before graduation, I missed writing a lot. This would be my passion, and I wanted to make a career of it. And so, in the Fall of 2005, I took a deep breath, switched gears, and enrolled in the first two core courses of the Technical Writing program at BCIT. I picked my path, and there was no turning back.