I don't think my job exists anywhere else. How do I job-hunt?

March 13, 2020 9:35 AM

I've got a weird job at a weird tech company, with a weird mix of responsibilities that may not exist anywhere else. Officially, my title is something like "technical editor." Half the time I'm editing software documentation. The other half, I'm doing things like writing internal software tools and evaluating processes. I'm considering moving, which will mean finding a new job somewhere else. I don't care if I'm still an "editor," and I think I'd be overqualified for most tech editor jobs I see. What other titles should I be looking at?

Editor Things that I currently do:

1. Give writers feedback on things like style, structure, and clarity.
2. Correct grammar errors and enforce a style guide.

Other Things that I currently do:

3. Develop new features for our in-house XML linter.
4. Develop other tools to search, tweak, and wrangle XML.
5. Administer grammar-checking software and be the liaison to the vendor to do things like pester them for new features.
6. Administer a complicated custom spell check dictionary and run the team that meets occasionally to add new terms.
7. Evaluate whether our documentation tools are working for us and giving us our money's worth.
8. Occasionally pilot new processes for doing things on this list better.

Jobs with the title "technical editor" seem to just require 1-2, and to pay a lot less than my current one. (I make about $95k.)

Jobs that require 3-8 seem to require a history as a full time dev or ops person, or as a project manager. (I haven't done any of those things.)

I don't think I would make a good manager, and I'd rather not be an editor in the book-publishing sense where you spend a lot of your time hiring and supervising freelancers. Other than that, I'm not really choosy what I do. I just need a stable job that doesn't require me to take a pay cut.

posted by nebulawindphone to Work & Money (17 answers total)

Do you want to keep working with text in a tech/design capacity? You might like UX writing. I also see this kind of work described as content design.
posted by cadge at 9:54 AM on March 13, 2020

So, those are the things you do. Which of them do you want to keep doing? Which of them do you actively want to stop doing? Which would you not mind doing but honestly it's a chore not a privilege?
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:56 AM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

"I'm considering moving, which will mean finding a new job somewhere else"

Will it? Software companies are generally pretty cool about WFH, and getting more so now. At both of my most recent jobs, we had people (one of whom did a lot of similar things to you - documentation, vendor contact, general do-everything) who had to move out of state because their partners were transferred, and in both cases management let them keep doing what they were doing remotely. If you like your job, talk to your boss about it. Especially since you're not actually planning the move yet, you could maybe "pilot"/"proof of concept" a WFH plan if they're reluctant so that you can show them that you actually would still be just as productive as you would in the office.

Bonus: if the location in your profile is correct, and you move somewhere with a lower cost of living, you might continue to get paid at your current level, which essentially means you're getting a raise.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:08 AM on March 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

Perhaps look into "content strategy," which can mean a lot of different things (one of which is UX writing/content design, and another of which is marketing which probably won't be so relevant), but there's probably a flavor of it that will interest you. There are some support content strategy jobs that involve producing and editing stuff like customer-facing documentation and FAQs.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:15 AM on March 13, 2020

Response by poster: So, those are the things you do. Which of them do you want to keep doing? Which of them do you actively want to stop doing? Which would you not mind doing but honestly it's a chore not a privilege?

Oh, good question. I'd say my favorite parts of my job are evaluating tools and processes. Development is interesting but I won't be sad if I stop doing it. Content editing is interesting but I won't be sad if I stop doing it. I'd love to stop doing proofreading and line editing, but I wouldn't quit if I had to keep doing them.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:24 AM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Proposal management/writing (you might see this in the category of business development).
posted by lovableiago at 10:26 AM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Will it? Software companies are generally pretty cool about WFH, and getting more so now.

Please assume that the question I'm asking is the question I want an answer to. Lateral thinking is fun, but working remotely for my current employer (or taking a pay cut and moving someplace cheap) isn't an option, for reasons that I don't want to have to justify to you.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:29 AM on March 13, 2020 [7 favorites]

System / application manager type jobs covers a lot of your items 3-8 and there's always need for people who can do it within non-tech companies. The strong writing and editing experience could be a selling point on job interviews, as a common complaint on the business side is insufficient documentation.
posted by mark k at 10:29 AM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

My job titles for work like 3-8 have included 'application manager' and 'application and procedure specialist'.
posted by buildmyworld at 11:47 AM on March 13, 2020

Sounds to me like you'd be a great business analyst.
posted by subluxor at 11:54 AM on March 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Two of my friends do precisely what you do, at less weird tech companies (Salesforce & Heroku), and have the titles "Senior technical writer" and "Documentation lead", and both make more than your current position by some margin. Doing what you do right now but working for a FAANG or adjacent company will let you do the same thing for more in a different place. Some require moving to a high-cost-of-living city (very high!), but they're increasingly flexible about mid-cost-of-living cities, like, for example, working for Stripe in Seattle.
posted by tmcw at 12:26 PM on March 13, 2020

Try Amazon Web Services. They have an entire team dedicated to documentation build and tools, and of course slews of technical editors (you wouldn't be overqualified to edit developer docs), and they are hiring briskly. Many teams are fine with remote work, or if not they have offices all over the place.
posted by kindall at 12:45 PM on March 13, 2020

Process Excellence is something in a lot of service centers in big companies. they usually have a service center for customer service and/or for employee service (in HR).

Their job is, usually, to review a current process end-to-end, figure out where gaps are, where improvements can be made, work with tech owners to write tech requirements and deliver solutions.
posted by magnetsphere at 1:35 PM on March 13, 2020

My day-to-day tasks are very similar to yours; I am a Product Manager who "owns" various software implementations for my organization. I am part of my org's Innovation Team. My strategic, dev, and writing skills make me a strong advocate for my org when I work with vendors. This is the type of job where a jack-of-all-trades does very well, imo.
posted by Wossname at 1:38 PM on March 13, 2020

Technical pre-sales with the right software vendor would use some of your strengths as well.
posted by mark k at 3:30 PM on March 13, 2020

Look for a company that seeks trainable talent. The company I work for certainly looks for experience, but someone with a background like yours could be trained to do a lot of other interesting things in a tech environment.

If you’re moving to Seattle, memail me.
posted by lhauser at 5:51 PM on March 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'd look for "Business Analyst" positions, and if those are too junior or too non-technical, you could also look at "System Engineer" positions. IME the latter is often used as a catchall term for people who are at a certain point in their career but don't fall cleanly into another bucket, and can contain a significant amount of high-level architecture, design, requirements analysis, proposal writing, and sometimes bizdev work.
posted by Kadin2048 at 5:25 AM on March 14, 2020