Senior Technical Writer Reviews - Page 5

Pros: Fascinating industry (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance). Very good pay and benefits. Cons: Zero training or mentoring. Limited “employee-development” programs. Consistent erosion of benefits over time. Very wide salary ranges with no clear “formula” to know if you’re in the gender-wage gap or if your pay is commensurate with skills and experience. Layoffs include people in spitting distance of retirement. Engineers rule. Men rule. Less than 10% female employees. Even less than that in Management. Money is the name of the game. Corporate speak is about supporting the warfighter, but it’s big businessmen doing big deals with big corporations (including government) with deep pockets. Zero attention to workflow efficiency. Not female friendly. In a big corporate meeting, an engineer stood up and said he wants to see Management take sexual-harassment reports seriously. Haven’t met anyone other than a few engineers who love their job.

A degree in English would be good preparation. At least be prepared to work in an environment with an attention to detail. Many positions are high-pressure workplaces with little room for mistakes. Documents are many company's only public face to the world, so it is important to keep this in mind.