Especially in the current state of the global economy, we technical communicators can fall to worrying about our job status, and rightly so for many. I don’t really want to get into that discussion, but my reason for bringing that up is that I think many of us are always on the lookout for ways to add value and to contribute so that we increase our importance. That could be the case even when the economy is good.

For example, about a year ago, I accepted a subcontractor job doing technical writing for an Oracle project. I did it for extra money and to get some additional experience under my belt. However, it became more extra work aside from my full-time job than I really was interested in, so I was glad that the job took only a couple of months.

We can be so eager to find ways to add to our professional value that sometimes we do ourselves in mentally. I’m potentially taking on a couple of new tech comm–related responsibilities outside my job, but at this point I don’t think they will take a lot of my time.

Like other people, I’m open to opportunities to contribute and increase my experience. But I’m also possessive of my leisure time and don’t want to fill it up completely with things other than leisure. It’s easy to overbook our time and give ourselves too much to do in our effort to increase our value to current and potential employers. I’ve learned when an opportunity arises to suppress my impulse to take on additional responsibility and look at the time I have available. It’s okay to say, “I just don’t have time to do that extra activity right now.”

Related posts (auto-generated):

  1. Preparing for the Technical Writing Profession, Part II