Training for the Future

Finishing up my internship, I have truly enjoyed every minute of applying what I learned in class to the real world. This experience has stimulated my interest in the subject and I wish to continue on to learn more about the field beyond just my minor requirements. I still have a year left of college and I believe that my business degree with majors in International Business and Marketing beautifully compliment Technical Writing. When looking for jobs, I searched with three things in mind: local, within the states, and employment overseas.

The first company I immediately searched for was Unilever. I love their innovative mission statement. They continuously sets out to find better ways of implementing greener and ethical business practices that benefits people and the environment. They have an internship opening as an Artwork Production Specialist in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In the "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age" article, it talks about how professionals today come from many disciplinary backgrounds. I agree when it comes to this position, which requires wearing multiple hats. I would work in teams that control multiple brands and come up with marketing strategies for different countries. I would create reports on the progress of these products, do business consultation with vendors, and be a marketing partner. Working at Krimson Kultuur, it as taught me to multi-task and combine all of my disciplines by interacting with customers, working with a limited budget, and creating documents or web layouts that would showcase our business events and quarterly reports. This description hit the jackpot in terms of fulfilling all of the criteria I look for in a job.

A job as a Customer Marketing Manager is located much closer to home. This job is in Bentonville, Arkansas and it focuses on working with the Millennial Market Segment (younger adults). I would be collaborating with other department teams to create program manuals and implement campaigns to target this group.This job does not mention technical writing specifically but it does require excellent writing skills. There is argument in whether this field is undervalued because of its modern practice of focusing on format over purpose of the work of a Technical Writer (Johnson-Eilola, p. 6). In my experience, I have learned that it takes both. It is important to make the work look professional and, at the same time, keeping the customer's (audience) opinion in mind. I believe that is a crucial factor to understand and adopt as a Technical Writer.

Lastly, there is a job opening in Burbank, California as a Professional Proposal Writer for the Proposals and Business Development corporation. This position will be dealing more in the Local, State, and Federal Government realm. I would be researching, writing, and editing within the Licensure: Certification Division. This job blends really well with my marketing major. I carry experience in researching, analyzing data, and applying those statistics in my reports. I believe it would be a very satisfactory job to do. However, I would like to have more practice with copyediting before I go into a job that demands it daily like this one. Overall, I would still take the challenge. My knowledge gained in Technical Writing has only been reinforced and strengthened in my time as an intern at Krimson Kultuur. I only hope that my future experiences can create new challenges and opportunities to apply this useful field in other aspects of my professional career.

Sources:
Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age."