Shanghai Tech Writer

One of the challenges of the technical communication/writing profession here in China is hiring good, qualified technical writers and translators. While I don’t know the situation at other companies, where and how other companies find and hire technical writers, nor could I speak for them or for NI China, I can presumably give a few reasons why hiring good, qualified technical communicators is very challenging in China.

1. English proficiency and fluency

In earlier posts, I wrote about English being everyone’s second language in China. I also gave a little background information about the people that companies hire as technical writers—people who majored in English in college. In the U.S. and other English speaking countries, companies can hire anyone to be technical writers, anyone with good writing skills and interest in technology. Here in China, the situation is very different. The people with the best English language ability, fluency, and writing skills are English majors. While other majors might potentially have excellent language skills, most companies don’t even bother looking anywhere else. For this reason, the pool of candidates from which to hire technical writers is a very small pool.

2. Interest in technology

While I don’t have any statistical data to backup what I’m about to say, I think this might play a role in why good technical writers are hard to find in China. Gender still plays a huge role in what students pursue as a career. Technology, engineering, and computer are things boys like. Girls pursue after other things like language, arts, and humanities. At NI China, 80-90% of the engineers are male. HR department is 100% female. Marketing has a high % of females while IT is mostly male. So what does that mean? My guess is that English majors have a higher concentration of females and therefore, technology is probably not as high on their list of interests. Finding English majors who are interested in technology narrows down the pool even smaller.

3. Technical proficiency

Technical writers and technical translators require a certain level of technical proficiency in order to do their job well. When companies hire technical writers and technical translators, they look for both interest as well as technical knowledge and/or experience. The university educational system is different than the rest of the world in the sense that the courses students take aren’t exactly “well-rounded.” English majors take mostly English classes. There aren’t as many opportunities (though still possible) to take other courses of interest. People who do pursue a technical career become engineers, not than “writers” or “translators.” Finding people with both language ability, interest in technology, AND technical proficiency is nearly impossible.

4. Technical communication as a profession

Technical communication is a relatively new profession in China. Colleges and universities don’t offer technical communication as a major, or even, as a course. I recently got an email from a professor in Beijing who is interested in starting a course on technical communication. Now that’s a start, but for the time being, this lack of awareness of the profession or field makes people less inclined to pursue technical communication as a career. Even if companies find people who qualify (language, interest, and technical proficiency), they might not find the job worth pursuing after, unless of course, they are paid very well, which leads to . . .

5. Are technical writers paid well in China?

I have no idea. My guess is probably not. NI pays well because it is an American company located in a big city (Shanghai) and they hire only the best and the brightest. But I can’t speak for other companies and cities. If technical communication isn’t even recognized as a profession in China, then my guess is that technical communicators are lumped together with other similar jobs like linguists, teachers, editors, and translators. These jobs are not considered as professionals so they probably don’t pay very well. My guess is somewhere in the ballpark range of $200-500 USD/month in a city like Shanghai.

Conclusion

There are probably many other reasons why technical communicators are hard to find and hire in China. I do want to clarify that the reasons I listed in this article are not based on any data or fact that I can verify with. I could only guess from what I know, what I’ve seen, what I’ve observed, and what I’ve heard from people. China is a HUGE country and the situation varies across provinces, regions, and cities. This analysis is not meant to be taken as a “this is the situation in China” deal, so please do not quote me.

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