FEATURE: Dallas Area Tech
Pubs Departments Get Raided

by Heather Steele, LSC 2nd Vice President

Hopefully you were all able to attend the October STC LSC meeting. It was one of the most high-energy meetings I’ve attended. I’d love to give all the credit to our fabulous speaker, Jack Molisani, but I think a large portion of the fun traveled here from Lubbock with our Texas Tech University guests.

Robert Macias, president of the Texas Tech Student Chapter STC organized a trip to Dallas for six of his classmates and one professor to attend our October chapter meeting. He asked us if they could visit a few technical writers while they were here, so we all pulled together to organize a set of tours at Advanced Data Exchange (ADX), T-Mobile, and CA (formerly Computer Associates).

Students Tour Dallas starting with ADX (Addison)

The group of Red Raiders started their day with my coworkers and me at ADX. We showed them around our office and treated them to donuts and sodas over a presentation about ADX, our internship program, and our Technical Writing Department. In light of Jack’s presentation about portfolios and interview skills, we wanted to stress to the students how important an internship can be to their professional development. Mike Nilsson, the Manager of eCommerce Operations offered his insight:

“I look at Internship programs like buying a car... you wouldn't buy one without test-driving it first. The Internship program gives both the Intern and the Company a ‘no-strings attached’ way to make sure that it's a great fit for both parties. It truly is a ‘Win/Win’ scenario.”

During their time at ADX, the students also had a chance to view and discuss the projects I am in charge of as the Technical Writer, and to learn more about the world of a Lone Writer.

We were very impressed with the intelligent questions the students asked and their eagerness to learn more about our business. Above all we were impressed with their professor, Ken Baake, for escorting them all the way to Dallas for the event. We try to work closely with local universities to fill our internship positions and educate students, but universities and professors don’t always cooperate. After the visit, Karen Hicks, Training Supervisor at ADX, said:

“I really enjoyed having students come visit the office. I think it’s great that a University would care enough about their students to take them on a field trip that assists them with acquiring work once they have graduated. Additionally, it’s wonderful that they were able to visit different companies to get the big picture of how a technical writer works in different environments.”

Moving further north to T-Mobile (Frisco)

After their ADX visit, the students ventured up the Dallas North Tollway to see Jackie Damrau at T-Mobile. Jackie welcomed the students and had Will Smith, a Wi-Fi Engineering manager, talk with the students about working in the telecommunications field and the type of information that they need to know to work in this field. The students talked with Jackie about what she does with T-Mobile HotSpot where she shared with them how her job crosses over four different groups: Enterprise Architecture, Release Management, Quality Assurance, and Business Analysis. The students were then taken on a tour of the Network Operations Center, which Jackie said “their eyes were opened…and they learned the real meaning behind ‘technical’,” followed by a tour of the Technical Customer Call Center. Dr. Baake and Robert Macias talked to Jackie about visiting Lubbock to speak more to the group about what she does at T-mobile.

Heading down south a bit to CA (Plano)

The students finished their stay in Dallas with a lunch and tour at CA with Michael Milliken, Manager of Technical Publications. The students had the opportunity to eat lunch in the CA cafeteria and tour their Plano facility. Michael put together a presentation about CA’s very large, international Technical Publications department. He talked to the students about the importance of structured authoring and working on teams spread around the world, and compared the benefits of working as a contractor to working as a full-time employee. (CA uses a combination of full-time and contracted writers.) Before the students left the office, Michael introduced them to many on-site writers ranging from the newest writer who has been with CA only a few months to writers who have been with the organization for upwards of 20 years. Michael said, “The enthusiasm and freshness of the students looking at technical writing as a career was very refreshing.”

Conclusion

The Texas Tech students and their hosts were all overwhelmingly pleased with the experience of the tours.

We are hoping to continue organizing office tours and presentations for local universities. Contact Heather Steele, STC LSC 2nd Vice President, if you are interested in hosting students at your office for a tour.