Room 42

In this episode of Room 42 we have a candid conversation about techniques and strategies that can help relieve career anxiety. 

Saul Carliner is a professor of educational technology at Concordia University in Montreal, where his teaching and research focus on the design of instructional and informational materials (especially in emerging media), the management of groups that produce these materials, and related issues of policy and professionalism. He has received research funding from SSHRC, Entente Canada-Quebec, Canadian Council on Learning, Society for Technical Communication, and Hong Kong University Grants Council. Also an industry consultant, Carliner has provided strategic consultation in organizational design, program evaluation, and effective instructional and informational design.  

Among his over 250-plus publications are the upcoming Career Anxiety: Guidance for Tough Times (with Margaret Driscoll and Yvonne Thayer), the best-selling Training Design Basics, award-winning Informal Learning Basics, numerous book chapters, articles, and op-eds and over 50 peer-reviewed publications. He has appeared on CNBC Asia, CTV Montreal, Global National, Globe and Mail, Jerusalem Post, Les Affaires, Montreal Gazette, and the Wall Street Journal. He is vice-president of the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE), Fellow and past board member of the Institute for Performance and Learning, past Research Fellow of the Association for Talent Development, and Fellow and past international president of the Society for Technical Communication. 

If history is any indicator of the future then it stands to reason that the employment environment will continue to change. Sometimes drastically. We touch on factors affecting commerce and how those changes will impact your future employability. We also discuss the skills and credentials you should acquire in order to stay competitive into the future.

For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/what-does-the-future-hold-for-a-career-in-professional-technical-writing/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss strategies for searching and finding collaborative projects outside of your comfort zone.

Dr. Jack T. Labriola is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Kennesaw State University, where he teaches usability testing, information architecture, and the senior capstone design course. He has researched, written, and presented on a variety of topics ranging from a co-edited collection, Content Strategy in Technical Communication with Routledge, to articles on minimalist design aesthetics and mobile user experience, to conference papers on university partnerships and building up student research toolkits. Dr. Labriola’s professional mission is to continue to discover opportunities to research and create better experiences for users in their day-to-day use of technology.

The messy world of research can offer you a unique opportunity to break out of your comfort network to expand your knowledge. It can also give you more career agility and, let's face it, it makes things far more interesting. We share practical ideas to help advocate for the value you bring to help colleagues in different disciplines see the importance of communication and user experience.

For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/how-to-get-invited-to-that-cool-new-project/

In this episode of Room 42, we have a candid conversation about the realities of authoring and publishing her book. Heidi shares her personal struggles and disappointments as well as life lessons learned along the way.

Heidi Y. Lawrence is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at George Mason University. She has a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing from Virginia Tech, an MA in English from George Mason, and a BA in English from Mary Washington College.

Heidi’s work examines how the tools of rhetoric can be used to better understand and respond to controversial topics about science and medicine in the public sphere. Her monograph, Vaccine Rhetorics, explores what she calls the four primary material exigencies that facilitate and sustain discord about vaccines. Her other published work across a range of scholarly outlets in rhetoric, medicine, and public health further examines how language functions as both a space for understanding controversies as well as an ameliorative path to changing controversial issues in the public sphere.

The epic journey to writing and publishing a book about vaccines in a global pandemic is not all fairy tales and happy endings.

In her own words: "Unintentionally, 2020 was an opportune year to publish a book about vaccines. When the year began, I thought I was 9 months and a handful of revisions away from a publishable book. Like magic it should all fall into place like a key in a lock. Between life delays, difficult reviews, and the simple fear of writing something crappy, the book (or the 'Voldemort Project' as my husband and I started calling it) was harder, took more time, and was more painful in every way than I ever could have imagined."

For transcript, links, and show notes:  https://tccamp.org/episodes/de-myth-ifying-the-book-writing-process/

In this episode of Room 42 we discuss the impact of AI on job application materials and strategies.

Professor Huiling Ding teaches technical communication at North Carolina State University. She is the Director of the MS in Technical Communication program and a University Faculty Scholar. Her research focuses on intercultural professional communication, technical communication, risk communication, and epidemic communication. Her recent projects have been exploring the connections between artificial intelligence, communication technologies, risk communication, and social justice. As the principal investigator of a large multidisciplinary NSF C Accel grant, she has been leading her team to examine how AI tools have been transforming the job market and job screening processes in the U.S.

The socio-technological landscape of work has been radically and permanently changed. Ever increasing demands for recruiters to present the exact ideal candidates for job openings has created more reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for pre-screening and matching volumes of candidates against defined criteria. 

To understand the impacts of emerging AI-augmented pre-hire assessment tools, this talk will examine assessment tools such as applicant tracking systems, resume screeners, and on-demand video interviews. We will also examine assumptions about pre-hire screening criteria and procedures used by technology and the impact of such tools on job application materials and strategies.

Event Page: https://tccamp.org/episodes/job-search-2-0-artificial-intelligence-impact-in-candidate-pre-screening/

In this Room 42, we focus on the ethics of researching and publishing in technical communication—issues that might cause anxiety, especially for individuals new to the field or new to publishing. 

Dr. Sam Dragga is Professor Emeritus of Technical Communication at Texas Tech University (TTU).  He is co-author of The Essentials of Technical Communication(Oxford University Press, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2021), Reporting Technical Information (Oxford University Press, 2002, 2006), and Editing: The Design of Rhetoric (Baywood, 1989). He was Editor-in-Chief (2016-2020) of Technical Communication the quarterly research journal of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and series editor of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication (19 titles). He has authored or co-authored a score of articles in journals and collections on such topics as professional ethics and intercultural communication. He is a Fulbright Specialist, a Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), and a recipient of STC’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication and the National Council of Teachers of English Award for Best Book in Technical and Scientific Communication and Best Article Reporting Historical Research in Technical and Scientific Communication. He served as president of ATTW (1997-1999) and initiated the organization’s annual conference in 1998.  He also served as chair of the TTU Department of English (2002-2012).

We consider the perspectives and obligations of authors, journal editors, and manuscript reviewers and examine ethical practices in developing research projects, writing and revising manuscripts, and interacting with editors and reviewers.

For transcript, links, and show notes: https://tccamp.org/episodes/ethics-in-technical-communications/