Posted by octopusprime on August 20, 2006, at 11:17:15
In reply to looking for low to medium stress job, posted by joslynn on August 14, 2006, at 16:18:45
I would go with technical writing or technical editing in a very large company with several writers and editors. It's a toss-up about whether editing or writing would be less stressful, but generally I would say that technical editors have it easier. Editors get more downtime and are not responsible for content ideas, but are overloaded immediately before deadlines. Writers have to try to pry information out of busy people that don't want to talk to them and pull content out of thin air, and they also get to deal with the flurry of changes immediately before a deadline.
Some people would still find this stressful though, as ultimately it is deadline driven and corporate politics can be very hurtful. Plus you need to be able to interact with a lot of different people, accept criticism well, and concentrate for medium to long stretches of time.
On the bright side, if you specialize in a particular technology or niche you can be quite well-paid, have excellent benefits, and most often work a reasonable work week. Being able to pay your bills reliably and to visit a good shrink on a fat insurance plan is a big stress reliever.
Ultimately, there is no such thing as a documentation emergency. Nobody will die and you can always post an update to the web.
the only problem I see with being a librarian is the stress of trying to get a job in the first place (you'd have to go to school, quite possibly take out loans, and then participate in a competitive hiring process) and then deal with the low salary.
poster:octopusprime
thread:676410
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/work/20060706/msgs/678429.html