By Jasmine Boyens
“Tech Comm Across Industries” was the topic for this year’s annual joint meeting between the Florida Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and the Future Technical Communicators (FTC), a UCF club.
The virtual meeting on Thursday, January 23rd featured a panel of technical communicators, each speaking on a different sector of technical communication. The panelists included:
- Alex Garcia, Lead Technical Writer at Lockheed Martin – Defense Industry
- Susan Kelley, Senior Content Strategist at Medidata Solutions – Software Industry
- Dr. Veronica Joyner, Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at UCF – Academia
Summary
A consensus among the speakers, no matter the industry sector, was the importance of being curious, open-minded, and eager to learn. Being ‘geeky’ and asking questions is an asset when documenting complex subject matter that you are likely not an expert in.
A prevalent difference across industry sectors is pace. Susan Kelley noted the fast pace of the software industry. Being agile and comfortable pivoting is a necessity. Keeping up with new trends and skills (including AI) is similarly important. Kelley also highlighted the normalcy of switching jobs every few years or so in the software industry as a necessity to gain new skills and reach growth opportunities.
The defense industry follows a slower pace, with a very structured and thoroughly planned flow. Yet, working in the defense industry can put you at the forefront of new technology. Unique to this industry are security requirements, which may impose inconveniences. Alex Garcia also stated that a technical degree is not necessary to work in the defense industry, “just a technical, curious mind.”
Academia may be the sweet spot between fast and slow pace. This sector calls for mastery of soft skills like research, communication, and writing. However, Dr. Veronica Joyner discussed the necessity of keeping up with trends and new skills to prepare students for the ever-evolving hard skills called for in the tech comm field. An additional distinction of this sector is the ability to not only know how to do something but know how to demonstrate it to others.
So much more can be gathered from Thursday’s discussion with panelists Alex Garcia, Susan Kelley, and Dr. Veronica Joyner. To gain the full value of this year’s STC & FTC joint meeting view the recording on STC FL’s youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stcfloridachapter7394/videos.
Please join STC Florida for our next meeting on February, 20th at 6:30 pm EST. The topic will be “Turning Tech Comm Into Marcom” with Jessica Kreger.