I love to have a plan. Being scared of change makes structure very comforting. Knowing what you’re going to do, where you’re going to be, who you’re going to see. I love knowing all of these things. But I also love spontaneity. I love going with the flow and experiencing life unknowingly. But a plan allows me to feel like I am moving forward. Like I am doing something with my life. I think that is what makes the future so terrifying. I sometimes feel like I don’t have a plan for my future and there is no goal I am working to achieve. People around me are waiting to hear back from dental schools, getting interviews for business jobs, or have already secured a job. While I am still debating which career path I want to head down. Everyone seems to be moving towards their found purpose and I feel left in the dark. Wondering when I will discover mine.
But this isn’t true. I am lying, to both you and myself. I have a plan. In fact I have about 3 different plans all which could lead me to live a happy life, content in my work. One is publishing. I went into college believing this was what I was meant to do. I currently have an internship that I love at my university’s press. The second is librarianship. I had never even thought of this as a career for myself. But I have now worked at the library on campus for three years and credit it to what shaped my experience at UMass. The third is technical writing. Unsure of the likelihood of getting into publishing, I turned to this career and am taking classes to earn a certificate in Professional Writing and Technical Communication. I had fallen in love with the idea of the job when a technical writer came into my class to talk to us about what his job entailed. The freedom he spoke of within the job was so appealing. All three are great plans. But which one is the right one? Which one is the one I am supposed to do?
As I panic and grapple with the fact that I have too many options for an indecisive person, I think back to my mom. My mom attended UMass Amherst almost thirty years ago and she majored in interior design. She has always loved to decorate a space and make it feel like a home. She has been pretty successful doing that in my own house. However, as she studied at UMass and took classes for interior design she felt a disconnect with the people around her. She felt as though she should look at them as a community, people who all share a common interest and are working towards the same goal. But she didn’t. She felt out of place and lost.
So, in her senior year of college, as she wished she went to school for something else, she turned back to a passion she hadn’t thought about in a long time. Therapy. Her first job post-college was as a speech therapist. She worked with kids who needed extra attention with speech and language. She found this job extremely rewarding and fulfilling, but it wasn’t until one day when she met a little girl who couldn’t speak, that she discovered why she loved the job so much. The little girl was sent to my mom because they thought the reason she wasn’t speaking was because she spoke Spanish. But through her facial expressions, my mom could tell that the little girl did understand her, but she was afraid to talk. She could tell that there wasn’t something wrong with her speech, but something deeper. So, my mom reported to her bosses that it was not that the little girl could not talk, but that she wouldn’t talk. She knew that it was an emotional issue not one related to speech, so she suggested to her boss to send the girl to the guidance counselor.
This was her “ah-ha” moment. The moment when my mom realized she wanted to be that counselor. She wanted to be the one to figure out those emotional issues and combat them one-on-one. She learned that what this little girl had was selective mutism. After this she spoke to one of her friends who was a school counselor and asked them where she should go from here. She ended up taking prerequisite psychology classes at Worcester State and then got accepted to Framingham State to complete her master’s to become a counselor.
From this point on my mom had found her passion. And she might have others. She might still be passionate about interior design or at one point she thought she was going to become an architect. But she doesn’t look at these as failed careers, but attempts to find the right one. She has had her own private practice as a therapist for about fifteen years now and she still loves what she does.
These past couple of weeks I have thought of my mom’s story. It has led me to accept the fact that I might make mistakes in the profession I chose, but they are not mistakes. Without them, I might not find the job “meant for me.” So, I have decided that I am going to pursue (for now) technical writing. Although I still have a passion for becoming a librarian, I don’t have the commitment to pick a graduate school to go to to get my masters in librarianship. I also have been thinking about a potential job offer I received from the library, but since it is not set in stone, I am not going to hold onto it. That doesn’t mean that I am dropping this as a potential career path for myself, but rather I am choosing what I want to do now and maybe this will come back to me later in life. What draws me right now to technical writing is the freedom I would have. Since most of the jobs in this field are remote, I will have the opportunity to live wherever I want. Some jobs include hybrid for the first couple of weeks, but then from there on it is fully remote. For my first year post-grad I am going to live at home with my parents. As many also struggle with finances after college, I am in no position to get a place and pay rent for myself, so I am going to spend at least a year at home saving money on rent. I have also always hated the idea of having a 9-5 in an office, but being able to work from home or wherever I want, puts those worries aside. But in order for this to happen, I needed to make a plan. A plan for my plan.
To move this plan forward, I have attended a UMass Alumni panel for technical designers and I have met with a UMass alumni who graduated last year and is currently working as a technical writer.
From attending the panel last week I was immediately reassured just like I was with my mom’s story. As each alumni began their 5-minute speech about themselves, I noticed that EVERY single person started off in one thing and ended up in a job that they maybe didn’t expect to be in. Other than their reassurance, I also gained some valuable insight into what a job in technical writing could look like. After each alumni gave their introductory speeches, we were able to go into breakout rooms with specific alumni to ask more questions. I chose to join Michael Stone’s breakout room because he is currently a Experience Design and Product Management Leader for Traveler’s Insurance. During this time I got to ask him about his day to day and what he enjoys about his job. He showed us some of his current projects working with the interfaces within their website and some finished products too. I also was able to ask some questions related to finding technical writing jobs and advice for the application process. He put a strong emphasis on the necessity of having a good portfolio that can showcase your work. He also suggested that you should stay up to date on the UX(user experience) trends by attending conferences, listening to podcasts, and reading the current news. The most important piece of advice that I received from Michael related to technical writing was to be a high-performer. He said you don’t need to know all of the skills, tools, or applications but you need to understand the problems and have a drive to fix them.
This week, I met with an alumni who I used to have English classes with at UMass, Sarah. Sarah also was an English major at UMass who was pursuing the Professional Writing and Technical Communication certification. When I saw her profile on LinkedIn and that she is currently working as a technical writer at a company called Acxiom I was instantly relieved that I knew someone who took the same classes as me, attended the same university, and got the same certification, landed a job in technical writing. When I met with Sarah it was really refreshing to hear that she also struggled in networking with people to find a job. She mentioned that she luckily was able to find an internship in technical writing that led to her current position. Her advice for me was to go to technical conferences, career fairs, or any events related to technical design or writing. Although she said the experience I have now would be sufficient to get hired, if I wanted to prepare myself even more I should attend some events where I can network and learn more about the new developments in technology and technical writing. A great piece of advice that Sarah gave regarding the application process was to curate each resume and cover letter to the company that is hiring you. If you use key words and phrases that are directly from their website or their job post, they will have a better understanding of how your work can translate into work for them.
After this meeting, I have worked tremendously on my resume to make sure I highlight the skills I have that would make me a good candidate for any technical writing job. I have included specific work from classes taken for my Professional Writing and Technical Communication certificate such as creating the 25-page Word Manual and the 30-page grant proposal I wrote. I have also added more of my technical writing projects to my portfolio to showcase the work I have done thus far. I am happy to say that each time I connect with someone in this field I am reassured of my decision. I find the products they are creating to be really interesting and the flexibility of their job very enticing. But, I do need to remember that none of this is permanent. I need to look at it as a stepping stone, or just a part of my journey that will lead me to a job or career that truly fulfills me. But for now, technical writing is what I want to do and what I want to pursue.