• TAC wins STC Pacesetter Award
• STC TAC officer elections slated for July
• TAC treasurer’s report
• Swiss LIG members meet in Neuchâtel
• Six days, two t-shirts, and great new friends — a recount of one member’s experiences at the Usability Professional Association’s annual meeting in Munich
• CSForum draws praise

Do you have a story to share? Share it with all readers by sending your story to newsletter@stc-transalpine.org.

Doble Engineering Company is internationally recognized as a leader in products and services that maximize the safe and efficient delivery of electric power. Doble offers diagnostic instruments, consulting services, industry data resources, and laboratory services to energy generation and delivery companies and industrial power users. A worldwide company, Doble has offices in 75 countries. Headquarters are in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Job Overview

Doble is seeking an experienced technical writer to prepare user documentation in support of the Partial Discharge (PD) product line. The successful candidate will work directly with engineers, product managers, and a technical publications supervisor to create user guides, quick start guides, online help, and other user documents. It is crucial that the candidate understand the difference between a software or hardware specification and a procedural user guide. The candidate will work in close cooperation with the Technical Publications group in Doble’s Watertown headquarters.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain user guides, quick start guides, online help, release notes, and other documents intended for use by test designers and testing personnel.
• Gather information from varied sources, such as engineering documents, hands-on product use, and subject matter expert interviews.
• Work with hardware and software engineers, quality assurance engineers, client service engineers, product managers, and other personnel, and participate in project team meetings.
• Work directly with the product (usually in a laboratory test environment) and develop procedural documentation that is clear and accurate.
• Adhere to Doble documentation standards and guidelines, use established document templates, follow the documentation life cycle process, and work closely with the Technical Publications group.
• Provide feedback to developers about product usability.

Essential Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Background

• Fluency in German and English, including understanding of technical terms.
• Extensive experience writing standard user documents in English, such as user guides, quick start guides, online help, and release notes.
• Knowledge of localization issues in writing and document design.
• Expertise using FrameMaker, MS Word, PaintShopPro or other graphics tool, either RoboHelp or MadCap Flare, and HTML.
• Experience working with established corporate templates, style guides, and processes.
• Excellent communication, time-management, and information-gathering skills.
• Experience planning projects and providing estimates.
• Ability to adjust quickly to shifting priorities.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Background

• Knowledge of electrical engineering or power engineering very desirable but not required.
• Experience with high-voltage technologies.
• Experience with XML

Interested? Please contact:

Michael Plueddemann

mplueddemann@doble.com

I came home to a wonderful surprise: our chapter has won a Pacesetter award from the STC! This award is given to chapters or SIGs who make a noteworthy contribution to the advancement of the STC.

This is what the email from Ann L. Wiley said:

“Congratulations on winning a Pacesetter Award for the 2009-2010 STC year.

The STC Board has honored your work because it is innovative, and your innovations are excellent, successful, and have potential for replication throughout STC. Thank you for your work, which is very
inspiring. The text of the submission to the Board for this year’s awards
follows, with the proposed citation for your award.

Pacesetter Awards will be presented at the Honors Banquet at this year’s Summit in Dallas. This event takes place on Tuesday evening, May 4. If members of your chapter or SIG who are attending the Summit would like to
purchase tickets, they can do so by visiting the registration page and
navigating to the link to add extra tickets for events.

Again, congratulations and thank you for the new and different things you have done to provide value for STC members and bring success to us all.”

So why did we get it, you ask?…

Collaboration with the France Chapter and Europe SIG this year on providing information and activities of value to members, with a focus on content strategy. This culminated in a
collaborative conference, Content Strategy Forum 2010, held in Paris in
April.

Further, this conference was held the day before the 10th TCeurope Colloquium, hosted by the Conseil des Rédacturs Techniques (CRT) who organized their conference specifically to coincide with Content Strategy
Forum 2010. This represents expanded collaboration over previous STC efforts
and is a model for increasing value to members that other chapters and SIGs
could apply in their own areas.

I’d like to give my heartfelt thanks to the board members of this chapter who have shown an incredible amount of deidcation to re-igniting this chapter. It’s worth re-igniting because it’s a great community – we all know that – but I’m glad to see their hard work, time and energy are finally being recognised in circles outside of our own TAC Community.
Great work, ladies! And thanks for all of your support as a chapter! Long live the TAC!!

Do you have news to share with other chapter members? Send your articles to me at newsletter@stc-transalpine.org

Regards,

Dan Jones
TransAlpiner Editor

TransAlpiner 2010 Q1

Location: Grantham, East Midlands, UK

Salary: £35/per annum

Function Description:

Our client is currently seeking an experiences The Technical Author for their team. The TA will develop documentation, both online Help and hard-copy manuals and ensure the accuracy and professional standards of the documentation for the client’s family of products.

The position is within the Design Team and reports to the Development Manager. It is also based within the Legal Division of the company.

The Technical Author is responsible for researching documentation requirements for each release and must be able to work quickly and take advantage of information sources external to the development team (as well as formal specifications and developer interviews) for developing the documentation. Good interviewing techniques, strong organisational skills and the ability to meet deadlines are crucial.

The documentation audience may range from new non-technical users to experienced technical users.

This is a strong software development company (not a start-up) with a long track record of success, which provides a strong career path and opportunities for its employees.

Job Description:

Documentation

Produce user-focused documentation, both Online Help and Hard-Copy Manuals for client products, including:

• Interview and gather information from software developers, consultants, business analysts, technical support engineers and customers.
• Update existing manuals
• Prioritise issues through agreement with manager
• Escalate identified issues
• Maintain changes to keep Help Files current
• Deliver documentation to agreed schedules.
• Edit and proof-read documents.
• Create and evaluate visual materials for documentation.

Project tracking and liasing

• Liase with the development department on modules requiring help files, supporting documentation and context ID’s
• Contribute to supporting material for test processes for all products
• Assist with the maintenance of all records for faults
• Liase with all relevant departments on outstanding issues
• Escalation and planning
• Work with the Senior Technical Author to determine the requirements for the product documentation set.
• Provide support on customer issues and feedback on these issues to the development and Product Management teams.

Documentation Development

• Maintain and extend internal technical knowledge base
• Provide feedback and suggestions on product usability and observations on software quality
• Assist in the production of all external documentation
• Develop and maintain documentation standards.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Degree or equivalent in a computer or business-related discipline (or commensurate experience)
• Minimum of three years experience as a technical writer in a software product development environment, with strong knowledge of documentation project cycles and requirements.
• Experience in producing end-user documentation for both non-technical and technical audiences, from functional specification and pre-release software.
• Solid experience with RoboHelp and writing online helps.
• Good interviewing skills and the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical staff developers, project managers, quality assurance and technical support.
• Skilled in writing user-focused documentation based on functional specifications and other source material and ability to follow documentation standards.
• Able to grasp complex issues and research business and non-technical issues independently.
• Experience estimating the effort required to deliver documentation assignments.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and deliver under pressure while maintaining documentation quality.
• Ability to write to audience level.
• Ability to test procedures and examples.

To apply, send your CV to cj@firehead.net, quoting job number 05119.
Firehead is acting as a recruitment agency in regards to this position.

JOB DESCRIPTION AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

As documentation and support engineer you will be responsible for supporting the developers who are using the Scoreloop Core Social SDK on iPhone and Android via email and on the developer forum. Additionally you will be improving technical documentation including examples, glossaries, short introductory movies, how to’s, and best practices. The role requires a good understanding of technical terms and very good technical writing skills. The ideal candidate is organized, efficient, possesses strong communication skills and has a passion for gaming/social interaction. As our company is expanding the role has the possibility to grow into a team leader.

• Supporting developers via email
• Interacting on our development forums
• Identifying documentation needs e.g. through developer feedback
• Creating documentation in different formats (PDF, web, movies)
• Suggesting improvements for the Scoreloop Core Social SDK

REQUIREMENTS:

• Organized and comfortable managing multiple tasks simultaneously
• Interested in interactive gaming and online social phenomena
• Previous experience in writing technical documentation
• Proven communication skills / Attention to detail
• Strong command of English
• Self-starting, driven and passionate

DESIRED SKILLS AND PLUSES:

• Background as a technical writer
• Comfortable supporting developers (as opposed to end users)

We offer an enthusiastic team, flexible working hours, and the innovative atmosphere of a young startup. Did we mention fun? Please send us your resume if you’re interested in learning more.

Please contact:
Florian Heinle
Human Resources
jobs@scoreloop.com

Thomson Reuters is the leading source of intelligent information for the world’s businesses and professionals, providing customers with competitive advantage. Intelligent information is a unique synthesis of human intelligence, industry expertise and innovative technology that provides decision-makers with the knowledge to act, enabling them to make better decisions faster. Through its more than 50,000 people across 93 countries, Thomson Reuters delivers this must-have insight to the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, and is powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. More information about Thomson Reuters and its financial performance can be found on www.ThomsonReuters.com

Your mission will involve:

• Liaising with project and product managers/business analysts to define functional documentation content
• Working with software developers and financial engineers to obtain product knowledge and technical information
• Using the software to acquire a working knowledge of the product
• Writing and updating workflow-oriented end-user guides and online help
• Formatting and preparing layouts of text and graphics using desktop publishing tools
• Incorporating changes and adding new information as the software evolves
• Using in-house reporting tools to monitor project progress

Profile:

• BA in Accounting, Finance, Business, Communications, or Applied Mathematics
• Native English
• Professional-level writing skills
• 3 years + experience in one of these fields: finance, applied maths, technical writing on financial software applications, training on financial software applications
• Demonstrated ability to work to project plan, and produce deliverables as planned to expected quality level
• Excellent communication skills
• Rigor and perseverance
• Pragmatism, autonomy, and productivity

Desired skills:

• InfoMapping writing methodology
• FrameMaker 7 +
• Experience automating data flow from Word to FrameMaker, or DITA
• Ability to read and converse in French

How to Apply:

Submit your application via the Thomson Reuters website: http://careers.thomsonreuters.com

Thomson Reuters employees take pride in providing our customers around the world with information that is timely, accurate, unbiased and trusted. We have a profound respect for the professions and customers we serve and define our success in terms of their success. Our work environment is dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial. We have a result-oriented culture that demands excellence, agility, and the desire to move quickly and precisely to seize opportunities. Our environment is both challenging and supportive – we give employees the opportunity to develop their skills and do their best work.

Thomson Reuters values diversity of culture and thought and seeks talented, qualified employees in all its operations around the world regardless of race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other protected classification under country or local law.

Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

For more information and to apply, send your CV to cj@firehead.net.

Firehead is acting as a recruitment agency in regards to this position.

In the Quarter 4 2009 issue, you can:

• Read about the TransAlpine Chapter’s upcoming ”Content Strategy Forum 2010″ conference cohosted with the STC France Chapter.
• Learn more about content strategy and our year ahead from TAC President CJ Walker.
• Find out what the Swiss local interest group has been up to.
• Read why you should renew your STC and TAC memberships.
• Link to the TAC Board’s survey where you can share you thoughts about the chapter.

Do you have news to share with other chapter members? Send your articles to me at newsletter@stc-transalpine.org

Regards,

Dan Jones
TransAlpiner Editor