My slides from the three-speaker closing Keynote of the 2019 STC Summit with Ginny Redish and Karen Schriver. These slides summarize the main results of the 2018 Census of Technical Communicators.

1. Who Are We?
A Report on the 2018 Census of Technical
Communicators
Saul Carliner, PhD, CTDP
Professor and Director,
Graduate Program in Educational Technology
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada
saulcarliner@hotmail.com
www.saulcarliner.com

2. About you
(Raise your hand when your letter is called.)
a. Planner / content strategist / information architect
b. Technical writer
c. Technical writer / editor
d. Editor
e. Manager
f. Other

3. In a word, how would you describe
the current state of technical
communication?
(Please share your thoughts.)

4. Results
1. Our backgrounds
2. Jobs and work situations
3. Job and career satisfaction
4. Professional development

5. The census: A snapshot of our field

6. How we conducted the census
(abridged version)
 Co-sponsored by STC and Concordia University,
sponsored by Webworks.
 University ethics approval.
 Conducted online, between July and August 2018.
 676 technical communicators responded.
 Raw results only right now

7. Advance notice:
I will be sharing a lot of charts and
figures with you.

8. Category 1. Our Backgrounds

9. Age
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71 or older Prefer not to
say
VII-a. What is your age range?

10. Racial and cultural associations
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
VII-c—With which of the following do you identify ?

11. Degrees in Technical Communication
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
N/A No Yes
VII-h. Were any of your degrees specifically in Technical
Communication?

12. (So what did participants study?)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Business Communication
and Writing
Engineering Fine Arts Humanities Natural
Sciences
Social Sciences
Which discipline was your degree in?
Bachelor’s degree
Master’s degree
Doctorate’s degree

13. Experience in Technical Communication
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1–5 years 6–10 years 11–15 years 16–20 years 21–25 years 26–30 years 31–35 years 36–40 years 41 or more
years
II-b. How long have you worked in technical communication?

14. Category 2. Our Jobs and
Work Situations

15. Primary job role
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
II-g. Which of the following best characterizes your current job role? If more than of these
describes your role, choose the one that is most dominant:

16. Current jobs
About a third of the participants shared their job titles.
 46% had the term technical writer (most common), editor
or communicator.
 5% use information developer in their job title
 5% incorporate the term “documentation” into their titles.
 3 participants had the term “content” in their job title: 1
content architect, 1 content developer, and 1 content
strategist.
 25% of the participants were in a senior role. The
majority use the term “Senior” to indicate this status
 3% each use the terms “Principal” and “Lead” to signify a
senior role

17. Work responsibilities
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
I am an account exec or similar (such as liaisons…
I conduct research on technical communication -…
I develop content
I edit content
I have subject Matter Expert responsibilities (such…
I manage a technical communication group
I manage technical communication projects with no…
I organize events
I plan strategy for my organization’s content
I provide other communication services
I provide technical guidance or assistance with…
I provide usability services
I teach courses on technical communication
II-h,I,j. Which of the following descriptions best characterizes your work
responsibilities?
tertiary (third) work
responsibility

18. Products produced (As many as 5 in past 12 months)
Products Produced in the Past 12 Months
Rank
Percentage Who
Produce Them
User guides 1 66%
Help and user assistance topics 2 52%
Reference material 3 46%
Tutorials and training materials 4 45%
Policies and procedures 5 40%
Knowledge bases 6 31%
Product specifications 7 26%
Employee communication materials 8 26%
User interfaces 9 25%
Marketing information 10 20%
Other 11 16%
Proposals 12 15%
Newsletters 13 12%
White papers 14 9%
Social media content 15 9%
Scientific reports 16 7%
Chatbots 17 2%

19. Work practices
To a great
extent To some extent Minimally Not at all
Technical
communication
standards 45% 37% 9% 5%
Structured
writing 37% 27% 14% 18%
Agile 29% 23% 16% 28%
Translation 15% 16% 20% 46%
Printing 10% 22% 32% 34%
Other 30% 40% 17% 10%

20. Technologies used (7 most used in past 12 months)
Technology Rank
Percentage Who
Use It
Word processing (such as Word and Google Docs) 1 76%
Acrobat 2 66%
Spreadsheet (such as Excel and Google Sheets) 3 65%
Presentation (such as PowerPoint and Apple Keynote) 4 51%
Graphics (such as Photoshop and Illustrator) 5 43%
Cloud storage (such as Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive)
6
42%
CMS (SharePoint) 7 32%
Collaboration tools (such as MS Teams and Slack) 8 31%
Help authoring (such as MadCap Flare, and RoboHelp) 9 31%
Desktop publishing (such as InDesign and FrameMaker) 10 30%
Web development (Dreamweaver, HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
11
21%
Component Content Management System—proprietary 12 20%
eLearning authoring (such as Camtasia, Captivate, and Storyline)
13
19%
Project planning (such as Visio) 14 18%
Other 15 15%
Open Content Management System (such as Drupal or WordPress) (tie)
16
14%
DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) (tie) 16 14%
Database (such as Access and MySQL) 18 9%
Video and sound editing (such as Premier, Avid, and Audacity)
19
8%
Translation management system 20 7%
Engineering graphics (such as AutoCAD) 21 6%
Storyboarding/wireframe (such as Axure) 22 4%

21. Tenure in your current job
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Less than 1 year 1–5 years 6–10 years 11–15 years 16–20 years 21–25 years 26–30 years 31 or more years
II-c. How long have you held your current job?

22. Employment situation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Academic Business owner (legally
self-employed)
Consultant Independent contractor Regular employee of an
organization whose
primary business is
providing technical
communication-related
services (such as a
contract writing firm)
Regular employee of an
organization whose
primary business is
something other than
providing technical
communication services
(such as a software
development firm,
defense contractor, or
education institution)
II-d. Which best describes your employment situation?

23. Industries in which participants work
0 5 10 15 20 25
Business Services
Construction
Engineering, Architecture, and Construction
Finance and Banking
Health and Medical Services
Higher Education
Information
IT Services and Solutions
Marketing Services
Nonprofit
Professional Services
Residential and Commercial Services
Scientific equipment manufacturer
Transportation
VII-d. Which industry best characterizes your organization?

24. Size of organizations in which
participants work
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
VII-f. What is the size of your organization?

25. To whom participants report
 Information Technology and Information Services
(IT/IS) (21%)
 Research and Development (19%).
 Manufacturing (6%)
 Marketing and Sales (5%).
 Other (22%)

26. Where participants are located
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Australia/New Zealand
Canada
East Asia
Europe
India
Israel
Mexico, Central American or South America
Other
United States—mid-Atlantic (Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland,…
United States—North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan,…
United States—Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New…
United States—Northwest and Alaska (Alaska, Idaho, Montana,…
United States—South Central (Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri,…
United States—Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,…
United States—Southwest and Hawaii (Arizona, California, Colorado,…
VII-e. In which geographic region do you work?

27. Category 3. Job and Career
Satisfaction

28. Job issues
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree
nor
disagree
Dis-
agree
Strongly
disagree
My employer provides
sufficient staff to produce the
content needed by our users. 7% 29% 21% 25% 13%
My employer provides
sufficient time to produce the
content needed by our users. 9% 37% 24% 21% 6%
My employer provides
adequate authority to make
decisions regarding our
content. 30% 41% 13% 9% 4%
My employer pays me a
sufficient amount of money
for the skills and knowledge I
bring to my job. 14% 43% 17% 15% 7%

29. Feedback Received on the Job
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree
nor
disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
My superiors provide me
with feedback on my
work. 19% 46% 16% 11% 4%
The feedback I receive
from my superiors about
my work is helpful. 15% 40% 26% 10% 4%

30. Resources
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
My employer provides sufficient
resources for professional
development (such as
conference attendance,
memberships to professional
organizations) 14% 29% 24% 17% 12%
My co-workers recognize my
expertise in technical
communication 33% 42% 14% 6% 2%
I feel underutilized in my job 14% 28% 14% 21% 20%
I am satisfied with my current job
in Technical Communication. 31% 39% 12% 10% 4%

31. Opinions and concerns about the future
I believe my job could be outsourced
out of existence within the next 5 years. Percent
Definitely 3%
Probably 12%
Probably not 42%
Definitely not 28%
I don’t know 15%

32. Concerns about the future--automation
Over the last five years,
technology has assumed
tasks that used to be handled
by humans
In my
technical
commu-
nication
group
That I used
to
personally
perform
Always 1% 1%
Often 5% 3%
Sometimes 39% 15%
Rarely 34% 31%
Never 27% 46%

33. Digging further into concerns about
automation
I believe my job could be automated
out of existence by 2030 Percent
Definitely 3%
Probably 10%
Probably not 40%
Definitely not 30%
I don’t know 17%

34. Concerns about job security
I am concerned about my current job
security Percent
Extremely concerned 5%
Moderately concerned 9%
Somewhat concerned 11%
Slightly concerned 33%
Not at all concerned 42%

35. Career plans for the next five years
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Less than 1 year 1 to 2 years 2 to 3 years 3 to 5 years More than 5 years I have no plans to leave
my current job
How long do you plan to stay in your current job?

36. Of those who plan to change jobs. . .
If you plan to leave your job in 5 years or
less, do you plan to remain in Technical
Communication?
Perce
nt
Yes 61%
No 39%

37. Of those who plan to change jobs. . .
Academic/faculty
Account executive Business owner (2 or
more employees other
than you)
Editor
Manager or supervisor
(with personnel
responsibilities)
Other
Project manager (with
no personnel
responsibilities)
Retired
Usability/UX Specialist
Writer
Writer/Editor
Five years from now, what would you like your job role to be?

38. Satisfaction with careers
I am satisfied with my career in Technical
Communication. Percentage
Strongly agree 30%
Agree 46%
Neither agree nor disagree 14%
Disagree 8%
Strongly disagree 2%

39. But . . .
Rank and order these titles in terms of what
you believe holds the most influence within an
organization.
Weighted Score
(weighting of the
rankings)
1. Product Manager 8515
2. Engineer 7934
3. Business Analyst 7368
4. Programmer 6616
5. Information Architect 6278
6. Content Strategist 5750
7. UX Specialist 5327
8. Marketing Communicator 4858
9. Information Developer 4778
10. Content Developer 4239
11. Instructional Designer 4020
12. Technical Communicator 3638
13. Technical Writer 3210
14. Documentation Specialist 3096
15. Technical Editor 2853

40. Category 4. Professional
Development

41. Magazines and webzines
 Intercom (52% had visited 5 or more times in the past 12 months;
6% had not visited at all in the past 12 months)
 Techwriting Today (8% of participants had visited 5 or more times
in the past 12 months; 52% had not visited at all in the past 12
months)
 Less than 5% of participants had visited other magazines and
webzines like Learning Solutions, Communication World, and
User Experience 5 or more times in the past 12 months. By
contrast, 58% or more of participants had not visited these three
magazines and webzines at all in the past 12 months.
Participants could write in other magazines or webzines that they
had visited 5 or more times in the past 12 months; none received
5 or more mentions.
 In addition, 39% of participants had not visited any professional
magazine or webzine in the past 12 months.

42. Peer-reviewed journals
Journal
Percentage of
Participants Who
Read 3 or More
Issues in the Past 12
Months
Percentage of
Participants Who
Had Not Read at
All in the Past 12
Months
Business and Professional Communication
Quarterly
3% 34%
Communication Design Quarterly 4% 34%
International Journal of Business
Communication
3% 35%
Information Design Journal 2% 35%
Journal of Business and Technical
Communication
5% 32%
Journal of Technical Writing and
Communication
8% 28%
IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communication
10% 28%
Programmatic Perspectives 2% 35%
Technical Communication 28% 10%
Technical Communication Quarterly 7% 28%

43. Conferences
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
ConFab Convey UX Information
Development
World
STC certificate
programs
STC Summit TCWorld
Conference
Write the Docs
conference
I did not attend
any conference
or training
event in the
past 12 months
Other
Which of the following conferences and training events did you attend in 2017 or 2018?

44. Meetings
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Local meetups STC chapter
meetings
STC webinars Chapter meetings
of professional
associations
other than STC
Webinars of
professional
associations
other than STC
Webinars by
private providers
(such as the
Content
Wrangler)
I did not attend
any meetings like
these in the past
12 months
Other
Which of the following meetings did you attend at least once during the past 12 months?

45. “Go-to” source
Source
Number 1
“go-to”
source
Number 2
“go-to”
source
Blogs 7% 10%
Books 13% 7%
Events (training classes, webinars,
conference, and meetings) 6% 7%
Magazine/webzines 5% 5%
Journals 6% 3%
Social media 3% 5%
I do not have any “number 1/2 go-to”
source. 46%

46. Formal professional development
Do you plan to participate in any formal
training or education over the next 12
months? Percentage
Yes 36%
No 36%
No response 28%

47. How participants plan to pursue
professional development
How do you plan to pursue this
training or education? Percentage
Formal degree program 5%
Academic course 7%
Course offered by my employer 9%
Course offered by a professional
association like STC or ATTW 21%
Course offered by a private provider like
the Content Wrangler or Coursera 17%
Other [write-in] 10%

48. Who pays?
Expenditure I paid
My
employer
paid
We
shared
costs
No
expenditure
s in the last
12 months
Publication
subscriptions 31% 24% 2% 40%
Membership dues 39% 41% 2% 15%
Conference
attendance 14% 29% 5% 48%
Training 21% 36% 5% 24%
Other 20% 9% 3% 64%

49. Personal investments
How much of your own funds did you
invest in your professional
development in the last 12 months? Percentage
$US 1–$250 31%
$US 251–$500 16%
$US 501–$750 7%
$US 750–$1,000 8%
$US 1,001–$2,500 6%
$US 2,501 or more 5%

50. Time invested
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
None 1–3 hours 4–6 hours 7–9 hours 10–12 hours 13 or more hours
On average, how many hours a month do you engage in professional development

51. What do these results mean to you?
(Please share your thoughts.)

52. My thoughts about the meaning
 Technical communicators are very satisfied with their
careers
 Technical communicators feel secure in their jobs
 Our assignments tend to skew towards the conventional,
even though the professional community might lead us to
believe others
 We might benefit from strengthening efforts in professional
development
 Technical communication is a “second career” for many
 Many do not have formal degrees in the field, but do have
related degrees
 We face demographic challenges as a profession
 Although we find satisfaction in our jobs, we have broader
concerns about our status

53. To learn more, see Intercom 2018(8).