You’ve never written a case study before, right? You wish there was some nice, easy way to get a handle on this. So, wouldn’t it be very nice if someone –guess who! – put together fifteen of the best articles on case study writing? Well, you’re in luck, we have!

1. How to Write a Case Study

Case studies and white papers are very effective tool to promote the benefit of a product or services. Case studies are the first most popular device used to promote the business.

How to Write a Case Study

2. Case Study: Focus To Be More Effective

As mentioned earlier, a case study is a soft-sell sales document. Its role is to highlight your abilities without resorting to market-speak and sales clichés.

3. Using Case Study in Your Marketing Plans

Case Studies are one of the most effective tools you can use to promote your products and services, especially if you are on a limited marketing budget.

4. What is a Case Study?

In general, case studies are made up of four sections: 1. Situation, 2. Problem, 3. Solution, and 4. Evaluation.

5. 5 Reasons To Write a Case Study About Your Business

There are several reasons you should publish a case study, for example to generate market awareness,  raise your profile, or demonstrate thought leadership. Here’s how to do it.

Case Study – Sample Templates

6. How to Construct your Case Study

In the opening section of your case study, Situation, you describe the rationale for the case study, your background, current market position, areas of expertise, and what makes your company different from the competition.

7. Case Study: Length, Format, Style, and Presentation

Most case studies are between two-or-three pages and in the range of 500-900 words, although some tend to run longer. Try to aim for three pages, and include one large graphic per page.

Case Study – Sample Templates

8. Transform Case Studies into Success Studies

A case study should start with a powerful headline highlighting the major result or benefit of the project.

9. Writing Case Studies for Medical Products

These medical case studies are 500 to 800 words and describe how the device improves the diagnosis or treatment of patients.

10. How to Prepare Case Studies

A case study can be described as the study of an object, person or situation in its natural habitat in an uncontrolled and observational manner.

11. Writing Case Studies That Convert Prospects into Customers

Case studies are a very effective promotional tool, especially when your products and services are intangible, expensive, technical or provide benefits that are not instantaneously derived upon purchase.

12. Making the Business Case for Case Studies

Case studies are much more effective because they offer quantifiable success stories told from the perspective of current satisfied customers.

13. Trade Show & Case Studies

Trade show case studies can only benefit your company. Learning from past companies’ efforts and strategies adds to your own experience, almost as if you lived through their successes and failures with them.

14. How Freelance Writers Can Make Money from Case Studies

I remember the first time a client offered me a case study writing assignment. “What the heck is a case study?” “How long is it?” “What is the format?” “How much do I charge?”

15. Case Study for Market Research

There is another method of gathering information which is relevant and must be described. It is called case studies and it is the most adjustable of all research designs.

16. Case Studies as a Marketing Tool

An effective case study highlights how a specific situation was originally identified, what solution was selected for the problem.

17. How to Market your Business with Case Studies

A great way to increase the credibility of your marketing is to let your satisfied customers sell your service or product for you. Case studies are a wonderful way to do this.

18. Case Studies Research and Writing

The problem section of your case study has to have a ‘punch’. It has to signify something to the reader, something that can relate to, something that makes them take action.

Case Study – Sample Templates

If you have any questions about case studies, please contact me here or visit our blog.

Posted via web from Small Business Strategies

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Case studies and white papers are very effective marketing tools if you want to promote the benefits of your product or services. Case studies are the first most popular device used to promote the business. If you plan to write a case study, this article will give you a better understanding  about this type  of business writing.

What is a Case Study?

Case studies demonstrate how a business condition was identified, how you identified the main issues, and the summarized your  results.

How to write a Case Study

Case studies tend to be short – between 500-1000 words.

In general, aim for three to five pages, and use one image per page at most. Case studies adopt a soft-sell approach.

How to Structure your Case Study

There are three sections to a case study.

1. Problem
2. Implementation
3. Results

The ‘problem’ section has to have a punch. In other words, it has to signify something to the person who reads it, something that they are able to relate to.
Focus on how the topic impacts the reader.

Demonstrate how your product resolved the business problem. The more explicit the case study, the more successful it will be.

Highlight the Benefits

Answer: how the solution, or service, addresses an issue.

Be careful here, as the whole case study is built in the region of this single issue.

Don’t dilute the case study by addressing more than the single issue – stick to one area and show how you can resolve the issue in measurable and proven terms.

Reduce Barriers

Case study writers need to demonstrate how their solution improves the situation. For example, how does it improve a business process?

This is an excellent area to state how your product integrates into other applications. You must use your conclusion when compile the last case study document. Avoid make it too technical or using too much statistics.

Case Study – Sample Templates

Compose the statistics set out so that the person who reads be able to easily grasp them and then memorize them later on.

About the Author: www.outsourcingresearchwriting.com

Posted via email from Small Business Strategies

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As mentioned earlier, a case study is a soft-sell sales document. Its role is to highlight your abilities without resorting to market-speak and sales clichés.

An effective approach to catch the reader’s attention (who is frequently a potential client) is to explore how the solution helped end-users and the target group.

How to build your case

Support your argument with direct quotes (with their names, if possible) from personnel who’ve adopted your system or use your services.

To make this work, concentrate on how the solution resolved one very specific issue and then build the case study around this.

Warning: don’t complicate the case study by addressing multiple issues; stick to one subject and explain how you solved the problem in measurable and quantifiable terms.

How to write a Case Study

How to support your case

Support your case study with statistics, figures and tables.

Areas to focus on include:

Return on Investments – how did the investment in your product pay for itself. For example, it increased productivity by 50% within 2 months. Explain how you can substantiate this; otherwise, your argument loses credibility.

Cost Containment – how does the solution help companies contain costs? This area is very important as budgets are always a sensitive issue. If you can illustrate how another company who adopted your solution saved money then you will keep the reader’s interest.

Reducing Barriers – explain how your solution improves internal operations and assists management planning. For example, how does it fit into the system workflow and business procedures? Alternately, mention how your system integrates with other applications and business critical applications.

When compiling the final draft, avoid making it too dry and overwhelming the reader with excessive figures. Rather, keep the tone light, easy-to-read while highlighting the key points.

Remember: case studies that oversell themselves by proposing to solve all problems to all people don’t work. No-one believes such claims.

How to refine your case study

Perfecting your case study takes hard work. But, once you refine the words and polish the edges, you have a very powerful marketing tool.

Indeed, those who download your Case Study will keep it on file and use it as a reference.

Case Study – Sample Templates

Once this occurs, the reader sees you as a credible, trustworthy and reliable source of information, the type of company people want to do business with.

Posted via email from Small Business Strategies

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How much time do you spend working every week? I don’t mean being in the office, but actually working. You have 37.5 hours every week, but how much is actually spent doing what you’re paid to do? When I say working I mean developing real outputs (e.g. content); this includes illustrations, diagrams, publishing etc – whatever goes into the final deliverable. Christine, my former manager, kept a record of all the tasks she did during the week. Here’s a breakdown of how much time was actually spent writing.

• Technical Writing – 15 hours (includes all writing tasks, such as release notes, developing videos, converting material from Word to FrameMaker and screen capture work)
• Email – 12 hours (includes correspondence to programmers, team members, sales, customers, mgt)
• Project Management – 6 hours (includes status reports, scheduling, document distribution & include feedback etc)
• Timesheets – 45 min (including revisions that need to be made so we can bill the customer correctly and allocate resources to the correct ‘bucket’)
• Internal Meetings – 6 hours (Mon & Fri office meetings, Tech Publishing Thursday meeting & meetings with HR (assessments) and project coordination meetings with Development)
• Customer meetings – 4-10 hours (this includes conference calls, status reports, emergencies, monthly conf calls with global depts, and project handovers. Mostly status updates)
• Travel – 6 hours (i.e. to customer sites or downtown to our HQ)

Total – 43-49 hours (50+ if you add in the travel)

Does this surprise you?

Less than 15 hours (30% approx) was spent on documentation. The rest was sucked up with email and meetings. While there are ways to reduce time spent on these, other areas are outside her control.

5 Mandatory Tasks

She has to:

• Go to customer sites
• Submit Status Reports
• Attend conference calls
• Deliver updates
• Create documentation

There is no wiggle room there.

How about you?

How much time do you spend actually doing what you want to do? How do you stop others from wasting your time and pulling you away from your goals?

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Do you use Posterous to update your site? I prefer to use Yahoo and Gmail to update the site rather than thru the Posterous site. Why? It’s easier to add images. You can add tags to your posts when you blog by email. Here’s how.
How to add tags to Posterous blog posts
1. Click in the subject of your email
2. Use the syntax ((tag: Startup, Business Plan, Template, Whatever)).
Your tags will be displayed when you post.
You can also go in and change the tags on the Posterous site.
More tips over here: http://ivanwalsh.posterous.com/

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From Shakespeare, Graham Greene, JK Rowling to Colum McAndrew, Ellis Pratt, David Farbey. All have all one thing in common – great writing! As my career started in the Baker Street, London in the 90s, I’ve always carried fond memories of my time in England. Here are some UK based technical writers you might want to add to your Twitter list. By the way, do you notice any difference between UK and US tech writer blogs?

Colum McAndrew

Colum knows more about Robohelp than anyone I’ve ever met and I wouldn’t be surprised if Adobe ‘made him an offer he couldn’t refuse’, for example, as a product evangelist.“Technical Writer with a keen interest in all Adobe TCS products (especially RoboHelp) as well as technical communication trends..”

http://twitter.com/robocolumn & http://notcolin.wordpress.com/

Ellis Pratt

Ellis is Director of Cherryleaf Limited a technical communication company based in the United Kingdom. “We are the most copied technical communicators in the UK, with expertise in single sourcing and online Help. “ Ellis, has a nice dry, sense of humor, keeping  Twitter lists for Squirrels, MeerKats and Elephants.

http://twitter.com/ellispratt

David Farbey

David “writes technically, constitutionally incapable of ignoring typos.”

He is a technical communications and information design professional and has been active in this field since 1994. David is a Fellow of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, and a Member of the British Computer Society. He has presented at professional technical communications conferences in the UK, Europe, and the USA.

http://twitter.com/dfarb & http://www.farbey.co.uk

Gordon McLean.

Glasgow-based Gordon is a “Technical Information Manager with Sword Ciboodle”.

Gordon is a member of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (and contributor to the monthly newsletter), and a member of the Information Architecture Institute. You can find him on LinkedIn or the Content Wrangler Community, and to find out more about me just visit my other blog or hey, Google me. http://twitter.com/onemanwrites

Alistair Christie

Documentation Manager for a UK-based software company, since 2002. “A long time ago (it feels like it anyway) I used to work in the publishing business as an editorial project manager for an educational publisher in Oxford. I later worked as a freelance editor and then decided to combine my experience working on books with my hobbyist enthusiasm for software and try my hand as a technical writer – and I never looked back!”

http://twitter.com/itauthor & http://www.itauthor.com/about/

Other UK technical writers?

Do you know any other technical writers based in the UK. Let me know and I’ll update the list.

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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I’ve started to use my social networks, such as Facebook more strategically rather than adopting a ‘shotgun approach’. In other words, I try to leverage each site by seeing the opportunities it offers and then using these. Recently, I’ve started to shift away from Facebook and moved to LinkedIn.

What does LinkedIn offer that Facebook doesn’t? Here are five reasons to Leave Facebook and join LinkedIn instead.

1. Target Audience – the average age on Facebook is 20 something and female. It’s a great place to meet people, swap videos, and chat. But it’s not a business platform. LinkedIn’s average age is 41. Most everyone is a business professional trying to meet other business professionals. So, for me, this gives it a huge edge over Facebook.
2. Business Groups – LinkedIn is designed around business groups. You can join these and instantly connect with people with similar interest. On Facebook, there may be fan pages, but it’s often just that, fans! No real dialogue goes on.
3. Recommendations – you can build relationships with people on LinkedIn and once they know/trust/do business with you, will give you recommendations. Professional endorsements give you an element of credibility that you don’t get elsewhere. And while this can be abused (I recommend you if you recommend me) it does seem to work.
4. Integration with other platforms – you can connect to LinkedIn from multiple social media portals, such as BusinessWeek, AMEX Open Platform, and even from Facebook.
5. Knowledge Exchange – I’ve kept the best for last. The conversations I have on LinkedIn are with the best people in their fields. You can learn a huge amount just by listening. Ask questions and see what comes back. The quality is very high. And unlike other sites, the conversations rarely degenerate into slanging matches. You can also receive the comments by email every day or bundled into a single email every week.

I will highlight other business benefits in the coming weeks. These are the first that come to mind.

Your thoughts

What do you think of LinkedIn? How does it compare to other business sites you’ve used? What would you like to see changed in it? How could it be improved?

Posted via email from Small Business Strategies

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Tom Peters says, “the value of services will continue to fall” and that the only way to survive is to differentiate yourself from the competition. Is this true? How do you as a technical writer make yourself stand out from the crowd? If you don’t, what impact could this have on your career?

How to Differentiate Yourself as a Technical Writer

Here are five suggestions to do this:

1. Video Blogging – use your Camtasia skills to create videos that show how products work. Cisco is doing a great job in this area. They gave flip cameras to the IT people and encouraged them to make short, snappy videos that show how to use their hardware, networks, and systems. Which would you prefer? To read 20 pages or watch a 3 minute video?

2. Screencasting Training – now that you know how to make the videos, why not use this to teach others to do this same. Position yourself as a screen-casting expert, setup the blog, get involved, and show others how this works. FWIW there is a very active video marketing group on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanwalsh) that you may want to join.

3. Web-based Training – if you’ve spent years writing guides, you must have developed an in-depth knowledge of 2 or 3 fields. See which of these are most in demand (Google searches and forums will be a starting point) and then develop training modules that you can present online. Lynda.com does a great job in offering training over the web. Sign up with them and see how it works.

4. Social Media Writing – you know how to write, right? Well, most people don’t. As Social Media continues to explode leverage your writing skills and show (“the benefit o f communicating well on Facebook is…”) others how to get their message across on these Social Network. Look at how Debbie Weil does it. http://www.debbieweil.com

5. Business English – the upside of all these jobs getting shipped to India, China, Brazil is that their Management teams want to do more business in the west. How can you help them write better reports, communicate more clearly, protect them from being misunderstood – you get the idea!

These are just five ways you can stand out from the crowd and position yourself as a specialist. My suggestion is to look at who is doing this right, e.g. Debbie Weil, and study them diligently. Then develop an action plan and start getting the rewards you deserve.

What other careers can you think of? Is it possible to differentiate yourself as a Technical Writer? How would you do it?

PS: Tom Peters is here: Thriving on Chaos: Handbook for a Management Revolution and Debbie Weil The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right is here.

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Who are the technical writers you respect most of the web? These four people helped me in 2009 and id like to share them with you. Some you may know, others you may not. The point is that while I’ve worked with many people in the last 12 months, these folks, have reached out and went the extra yard. And, for me, that’s the difference..

Tom Johnson – you probably know Tom from his http://www.idratherbewriting.com/ site. Not only are Tom’s articles helpful to me as a technical writer, they also help me consider areas that I usually tend to avoid. A simple example is his podcasts. I don’t care for these in general but have had second thoughts after seeing how he makes them (i.e. behind the scenes) and how much others value these. Expect to see podcasts on this site soon!

Scott Able – again, you may know Scott, who’s also a budding DK by the way, but it was a comment he made on the (old) site that got me re-thinking about the role of technical writers and their position in the industry. In many ways, it opened my eyes to what I’d overlooked. One of those ‘a-ha’ moments that makes you stop. Scott is here http://thecontentwrangler.com/about-2/ and http://twitter.com/scottabel

Eric Lin – a UK based technical writer who helped me in two ways. One was encouragement. I know that sounds simple but a kind word makes a lot of difference when you’re starting out. Next was criticism. What I mean is that I changed the site (a bit too much) and he wrote in to say why this didn’t work. It wasn’t a rant. What he said made sense and I changed the site back. Other suggestions have made their way into how this site is presented, i..e. offering more than just technical articles but career advice and life-hacking tips. Site under re-development.

Rahul Prabhakar – introduced me to the technical writer’s group in India, though he’s based on Korea. We’ve swapped ideas on Facebook, some fairly active technical writing groups there, and now connect more regularity. I plan to travel to India sometime in late 2010. There is so much happening there that we (me, anyway!) need to see what we can offer, whether it’s strategic advice, training, consultancy or management skills. http://2brahulprabhakar.blogspot.com/

Betsy Weber – the voice of TechSmith! This is the person to connect with if you want to know or do anything with video recording, screen capturing or screen-casting. Betsy is always ‘out there’-as in on the road-so you should be able to link up with here if you’re in the US. She just came back from Europe and even made time for us in little ‘ol Ireland. http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/

Those are some people keeping me on track.

PS – Links to these technical writers’ website are here: http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com/2010/01/4-technical-writers-i-love-betsy/

Whom do you recommend?

Developing connections —and giving value to these connections —is an important part of developing your career. How do you go about making these connections and nurturing so that we don’t take them for granted?

How can I connect with you?

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Planning on doing business in China? Doing business in China is not the same as wherever you’re from. If you keep comparing China to your country, however wonderful it is, you won’t enjoy China very much. Take it on its own terms.

 

Here are some tips for doing business in Shanghai.

 

1. Be punctual – Shanghai people are known for their punctuality, so they’ll expect the same for you. While this is not true in most of Asia, here is to be observed. Try to arrive 10 minutes early.

 

2. Stay in Pudong – this is to east side of Shanghai and is where most of the high-tech business and government buildings are located. PuXi is the older, more traditional side of Shanghai. So, unless you have business on the west side of the river, stay over here.

 

Tip – you can take a fantastic underwater train from PuDong to PuXi for around 5 USD. It is an amazing trip with a wonderful light show. You will see ads for it along the Bund.

 

3. Take care on the Bund – avoid people who come up to you looking for assistance (you’re the tourist right?) or who want to take their photo with you. I know this sounds flattering but it’s just a ruse. Be careful.

 

4. Business-men Smoke – unlike other countries, many people still smoke in business environments, though it is getting phased out. If you arrange a meeting with a Chinese businessman, don’t take him to a Western restaurant/hotel where he can’t smoke. Find somewhere that he is more comfortable in. otherwise the deal is off before you start.

 

Also:Global Awareness and Cultural Sensitivity Strategies for Western Technical Communicators

 

5.. Xrays in the Metro – most all metro stations have xray machines to check luggage. Just be careful that your laptop is not damaged going through or that your film etc gets ruined. It’s unlikely but be careful.

 

6. Wifi – you can get wifi in many coffee shops, especially near Pudong, but you often have to ask for the password to access the network.

 

7. Travel Card – if you’re staying for more than a week, get a network card. You can use this on the metro, bus and in most taxis. This means you have to carry less cash with you and spend less time standing in queues.

 

8. Metro City – this is the IT shopping centre (PuXi) and has Best Buy and other western shops on the same street.

 

9. Learn to Haggle – in most of Asia, it’s expected to do some haggling so don’t take it personal. If they ask for 100, I offer 30. They look horrified, we haggle a bit, and finally settle on about 60.

 

10. Chop sticks – unless you’re staying at the Hyatt etc, learn to use chop-sticks. Most places don’t have knives and forks. It takes 30 min to learn how to use chopsticks. Ask a local; practise with peanuts. It’s the only way.

 

11. Expo 2010 – road works are everywhere, so try to stay away from the Bund (PuXi side especially) as this is under heavy re-development.

 

Remember Shanghai is not Beijing and Beijing is not Hong Kong…

 

What have I missed?

 

If you’re travelling to Shanghai soon and have a question, add it below.

 

Posted via email from Social Media Tips

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Denise Wakeman asks, “How am I going to come up with fresh content for my blog three times a week?” She lists some excellent ideas designed to help save you time and stimulate some new ideas. Here are some others you might want to consider.

7 Ideas to Inspire Your Business

1.       Track Comments On Other Sites – When I comment on a blog, I make sure that I get updated by email. This lets me keep track of the sites worth commenting on rather than searching thru bookmarks. I have 3 PCs, so the bookmarks are everywhere. But all the emails are in one place. Just saves times.

2.       Read books outside my comfort zone – I try to read one book every week outside my comfort zone. For example, this week I’m reading Stephen King’s Duma Key (disappointment) and a biography of Genghis Khan by John Man. Some of the ideas/concepts in these books often influence me later on down the line, often weeks later. It takes time to digest new ideas and weave them into your thought processes.

3.       Study Tai Chi – I’ve started with this 3 months ago. Some of my quietest moments come after these sessions. When you work long hours – often 6am to 11pm – having a mental break can be a great refresher.

4.       See New Places – we live in China so it’s not hard to get new ideas & influences every day. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been to Asia and/or a 3^rd world country. Very demanding and very challenging.

5.       Learn to Stop– I try to intentionally slow down during the day and if possible to stop. Running a small business takes up every waking moment – the golden rule is that I can’t take the laptop into the WC, but I would if I could – so having a break is essential. I’ve started photography as a way of relaxing.. You can see some photos here.

6.       Reaching out – Chris Brogan make the point that if you try to ‘equip’ people (his words), then you’ll see the rewards coming back. Instead of using your site for broadcasting, you it as a HUB to distribute info and send people on their way – better equipped! I find this approach also helps with idea generation. Mixing with new people keeps me alert.

7.       Twitter Alerts – I’ve setup Hootsuite to flag certain keywords that I track on Twitter. This works like Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts – except that it flags words in the twitter stream. I follow people who have an interest in these areas and see how I can connect/reach out to them.

It’s not the number of twitter followers that matters, it’s how you personally help them that matters. Otherwise, they are ‘passive’ followers but there is no real interaction going on.

What other ways do you use to generate fresh ideas and stay alert?

Let me know below and we can talk about it. What’s the most interesting things you’ve read this week and how will it change the way you do business.

PS - Denise is here http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/13-ideas-to-inspire-your-blog-content/ and Chris is here http://www.chrisbrogan.com/make-some-money/

 

 

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Ross Kimbarovsky asks: “How do you decide what to do next? Should you write a blog post? Answer emails in your inbox? Make several sales calls? Spend time on Twitter? Or should you call a team meeting to discuss a customer problem?

Ross adds that successful people are successful in part “because they are good at setting priorities. And while there are many different ways to set priorities, I wanted to share how I set my own priorities.”

Getting Things Done – How I Set Priorities from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

Getting Things Done: How I Set Priorities

For me, it’s all about planning. And planning, by extension, is decision-making.

1. At the end of every business day, I review what I’ve done. Takes 5 min. What did I forget to do? This goes to the top of next day’s schedule.
2. I get up around 6am to get a head start and beat the kids getting up.
3. I ignore the emails for 1 hour. Nothing is that urgent.
4. I plan my day – what is critical goes first, then what I need to do and the rest can wait
5. When all of this is done, I check emails, watch cats doing ninja tricks and what not
6. I have a super quick review at 11.45 before lunch
7. I have a super quick review at 2.45 to make sure I’m still on track.

All this is done on my pad. Writing it down seems to make it more permanent. I like to cross things off when I’ve conquered a task!

Small rewards as we go along. Nothing fancy.

Closing my inbox during the work day was/is the biggest way to save time. And, of course, turn off the phone.

How do you organize your day?

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Gina Blednyh has created a new Technical Communication group on Facebook. Why don’t you join us?

“This group’s purpose is to explore the interplay between Web 2.0 and technical communication.. Join us to discuss collaborative technologies and new approaches to delivering information to customers.”

Unlike other technical writing groups on Facebook, there is a nice amount of activity going on here. It has that nice, bubbly energy you get with a new group.

So, jump in if you want to connect with other technical writers and see where/how technical communication works with Web 2.0.

Search for Technical Communication 2.0. and you’ll find it. If you’re connected with me, you can see it in the list of groups I’m in.
Any problems finding the group, let me know.
Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/ivanwalsh

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh

Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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Do you feel loved? Many of us feel unloved and under-valued. We feel we don’t get the respect we deserve. I hear this on LinkedIn and Facebook: “people don’t respect the efforts I make”. Well, if that’s the case, here are a few ways to get more respect and move into a more rewarding career.

Signs That You Get No Respect

• Define Respect – first, you need to define what you are really looking for? What in others would demonstrate that they respect you? It is financial rewards, credit, acknowledgment or other things. Check that you’re not being over-sensitive or running yourself down. People who don’t respect themselves, never earn respect from others. It’s one long downward cycle.
• Getting Bullied – if you feel you’re the butt of their jokes, getting run down, disrespected and ridiculed, then maybe, maybe, maybe there is some bullying going on here. You need to face these people and assert yourself. If you don’t, the same pattern will repeat itself at the next job.
• Office Trolls – these people don’t respect anyone. They’re emotional vampires. Don’t take it personally. Even if you do a great job, you’ll never earn their respect. But here’s the thing. Would you want their respect, anyway?
• Lack of recognition – if there is a trend/habit of certain staff getting rewarded, while you continually get overlooked, then flag it (be careful – this can back-fire if you’re seeing to be whining) or find ways to address it.

What to do next

• Be active – if your work environment doesn’t see the value in what you do, then get out there and start looking for alternatives. Remember, it’s always easier to get a job when you have a job.
• Re-Positioning Yourself – for example, technical writers with 5+ years experience should/could be looking at re-positioning themselves as Content Strategists, Web Content Consultants and other roles where your ‘knowledge’ in more valued. This is where the real money is. It may take you 12-18 months to make this transition but once there the rewards, respects, and career development make it worthwhile.
• Perception – Technical writing, software testing, technical support and other front-line jobs are often seen by Management as a service, in the same way that other high street jobs are seen as services, i.e. useful but not *always* essential. As long as you’re seen as a writer/tester/operator, people see you as providing a service. And the services industry is very far down the food chain.  
• Interesting places to look – if you have a taste for adventure, Brazil, Australia, India, China, Poland, Dubai, and others in the Gulf are actively seeking experienced IT professionals. While there are many barriers to moving to these counties, such as language, food, families, health etc, US multi-nationals with offices in these locations can be very supportive of people willing to give it a try. Google, Oracle, IBM, and most of the Nasdaq 100 have offices in Asia. If you’re interested, call them or visit their website. It can’t hurt to look.

What do you think?

What suggestions would you give to someone who wanted to develop their career or re-position themselves, for example, to move out of IT and into a new field?

Connect with Ivan

Ivan: http://www.ivanwalsh.com
Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/ivanwalsh
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh
Businessweek:http://bx.businessweek.com

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Posted via email from Technical Writing Tips

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