The only other frustration I have is that I am female and find that the men I work under typically do not believe I understand technical material, despite my certification as an electronic technician and my education, which includes Physics and Calculus.

Two documents, each 150 pages long, is a big task. It’s hard to say how long such a review and completion job would take, without knowing the original quality of the document. At a stab, I’d guess 3 weeks for each document, assuming the original quality is fairly good.

My experience is that management and non-tech-writers consistently under-estimate the amount of time it takes to produce a quality document. They simply don’t know.

A suggestion: Now that you’ve had some good exposure to the documentation task, it would be a good time to make some estimates for the time required to complete the job. Base your estimates on the time you’ve spent so far (known) and add the time still required (estimate). Be ruthless about the time still required — don’t cut it short. And add a good section of time for reviews once you’re done.

This will put you in good stead for the next task they might present, because you’d have a good basis to set their expectations.

I guess the most important thing about extending your position there is whether you enjoy the work and the people. If those two things are good, then everything else kind of falls into place

In short: No, you’re not too slow.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
Sarah

I am looking for a little guidance. I have been a tech writer for about 3 years. I like the work, but I sometimes wonder how good/productive/effective I am.

Exactly five weeks ago, I began a contract position for a large comapany. I love the people and the company. In the second week, I was given two assignments. Both are instructions for manufacturing electronic equipment and are about 150 pages long. One was an original document that I was told was 95% complete. I have gone through two sets of redlines with the SME, updated the formating, taken two sets of pictures and still need more. I have also been told that the reference numbers for the parts are wrong and need to be changed. While this document was in review, I worked on the second document, which was only supposed to be a revision. It also needed format revisions and style updates. Neither document is complete. The second is in review with the SME, but I don’t think it is finished. Am I too slow?

I really would like to make this permanent, but worry that my efficiency is not as good as they had hoped. Can someone with experience, who is not competing for my job, please help me?

Thank you for your comments

And a huge congratulations on winning the the STC’s Award of Excellence for the Gigaspaces documentation wiki!

A team of one, that’s impressive. I’m thinking you must be very agile indeed and can surely claim the magic ‘XTW’ acronym.

Seeya on the page,
Sarah

I just wanted to wow your blog. I’ve only read 2 entries, and already I’ve been nodding my head the whole time.

Seems that, I too am an agile technical writer, or more accurately am in the midst of becoming one (but that’s agile for you, isn’t it? :)).

Anyway, be sure I’ll continue reading. A lot of thing you’re writing hit home, since GigaSpaces also works according to Agile practices, and we also have wiki-based documentation. However, “we” are still a team of one, so I’m still trying to keep up with the R&Ds crazy progress. All the things you manage to fit in to one day are quite admirable.

Thanks for the reading, continuing to do ATW (since I’m not sure if I’m a XTW yet) stuff.

Good day,

Limor

(And sorry if this post is somewhat rambling…I’m just too tired from life to go back and redo it. ) Cheers.