December 2015

In the year's final newsletter, Emma looks back at TechCommNZ's busy year. We profile Meredith Evans, of Synlait Milk, who last month won the award for best plain English technical communicator – for the second time. The Salary Survey competition for a $100 Prezzy Card closes on Wednesday (although the salary survey will remain open until the end of January).

Thinking ahead to next year, what does it hold for you? If you're thinking of pastures new, you might like to check whether your CV is ready for the scrutiny of a tech comm recruiter. If the word "agile" is in the job description, but you don't know much about it, we also have some introductory reading for you. And Luke Pivac has some great stories from around the planetary system.

That's us for 2015 - we'll be back in February 2016, relaxed and raring to write. If you want to join the comms team in any capacity, give us a shout! In the meantime - happy holidays to all.

From the President

2016 has been a challenging, busy, and exciting year: challenging and busy – because there is so much to do; exciting – because the work is worthwhile. Technical communication plays an important role in the New Zealand economy, and I get a huge sense of satisfaction out of promoting this career and this role to the very many people who need help with documentation, or need a job.

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Featured TC: Meredith Evans - Best TC Again

It’s not the winning that counts, but taking part, according to the WriteMark Best Plain English Technical Communicator for 2015, Meredith Evans. The Applications Analyst for Synlait Milk recently picked up the award at a ceremony celebrating the winners and finalists for the WriteMark Plain English Awards 2015 held at the Wellington City Gallery.

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Last Chance: Complete the Salary Survey and Win

Thanks to everyone who has already completed the Annual TechCommNZ Salary Survey. For those who haven't - there is still time to complete the survey and go in the draw at midday on the 16 December 2015 to win a $100 Prezzy Card.

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Is your CV Fit for Purpose?

It’s hard enough getting your CV and cover letter right for a job application, let alone when you’re a technical communicator and you know every word you write is an advertisement for your skills. So how do you get it right? To find out, we polled a number of prominent tech comm hirers.

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Working with Agile Scrum

A colleague recently asked me about agile development, and scrum, as he has never worked in a software development team, but he'd heard these terms and wondered what they mean. It occurred to me that anyone looking for a job in an agile team without agile experience needs some familiarity with the jargon and concepts, and also with the role of the technical communicator in that milieu...

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Let's Tech Communicate

Luke Pivac shares the latest trends in technical communication from around the world. In this issue – we explore what is happening in outer space, we look at live XML content and find out about learning videos for mobile devices. We also look at some technical communication predictions for 2016. This and a whole lot more from around the Net!

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Events

Join in, learn, meet new people...

2 February, Christchurch Branch:
Task Models, Diggers, and Dayton, Ohio - with Maree Horlor

Adobe