Lindsay Burrell was a Technical Writer for several years before completing her Cognitive Science BA at SFU. She remains employed in Technical Writing, and is currently enrolled in an MA Philosophy program also at SFU. |
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‘Technical Writing employers were really receptive to this degree. Sometimes I had to explain the skills I learned, but once they knew, they thought it was excellent.’
Q. What made you get into Cognitive Science?
A. I had been a musician, with a conservatory designation. I loved that, but it’s tough to get work as a musician. So I’d had more than enough of the “starving artist” syndrome. I retrained with a Computer Programming Diploma—that got me working at a computer help desk pretty quickly, and that’s where I first started updating manuals when the phone wasn’t ringing.When my first son was born, we decided that I would stay home with him and I thought, “this is my chance to get a new degree.” At my Mom’s advice, I completed a package of vocational testing, and it was really great for helping me see where my talents lie. Because this time I really wanted access to good work, I bit the bullet and registered in a double major in Mathematics and Computing Science. When I first applied to SFU, they didn’t have the Cognitive Science Program, but by the time I started courses they did. I immediately switched my program and became one of the first CogSci students. It was a perfect fit—I loved having this great smorgasbord of courses to take.
Q. Were your expectations met?
A. Yes, totally. It was exactly as I hoped it would be. I will say, though that I’ve experienced problems at the graduate level just because of the core requirements of the program. They’re all about breadth, and not much about depth. That means I’m a “jack of all trades, master of none” as far as graduate work is concern. So, for example, in a room of Computing Science majors, I know the least computing and the most neuroscience, linguistics, and philosophy. In my Philosophy Masters program, that’s meant serious weakness in history, metaphysics, and ethics. It seems to me one needs about a year of remediation in the target discipline to transition into a non-Cog Sci graduate degree.I think this is unavoidable in an inter-disciplinary degree, but it’s still been difficult.
Q. Overall, how has your cognitive science BA fit into your career?
A. I began technical writing for the high-tech computing industry before I entered my program, and wrote part-time all through the program. When I entered the Cognitive Science program, I had no thought that it would be relevant to my work as a technical writer, but it has been super-relevant.
What I do is write and manage large documentation sets for high-tech equipment, especially networking equipment for the telecomm industry. I decide what books need to be written, create the book design, and build the template for the book in FrameMaker. Then I research and write the books, and keep them updated as the product changes. So for example, right now, one of the document sets I manage is about 5,000 pages plus. I wrote most of those pages over the last 4 years, and we have a release of the product every 8 to 12 weeks.The work is very technical because I specialize in networking: TCP/IP, routing, IP services, Voice over IP—lots of protocol work. I have to use every technical "bone" in my body.
I can see that Cog Sci has really contributed to what I'm doing. I have much more technical background than most writers, and the philosophical logic, symbolic computing, and Computational Linguistics have made me a sort of “expert” in my field for command-line interfaces. Often I’m actually asked to help design the commands because of it. The work in cognitive psychology has provided insight into the way computer users learn, think, and remember, and that’s made me useful to the engineers for questions about user interfaces. That, together with the work I did myself on user interface design in the Computing part of my degree, gives me a background in “Human Factors”, which is highly sought after in my industry. And in general, in terms of structuring information and general information design, a background in Philosophy can’t be beat. You almost couldn’t ask for a more useful degree for what I’m doing, overall.
Q. Tell us about the job search process as a cognitive science graduate…
A. I really didn’t know what to do at first. I was doing a lot of smaller jobs which could fit around the family schedule, and I’d been working pretty steadily as Philosophy TA for a long time (my degree took 14 years, because I was on “the mommy track.” I seriously considered something in Artificial Intelligence—maybe computational linguistics or logic programming. But my husband, who was also in the high-tech industry, thought I’d be a good fit for technical writing full-time. I took his advice, and it was the best thing I’ve done. So, while I did have to search for a job as a full-time employee (as opposed to a part-time contractor) I never really had to search as a “Cognitive Science graduate.”
Q. How have employers responded to your Cognitive Science BA?
A. Well, one thing for sure, they prefer it to a Bachelor of Music! I do find that nobody really knows what Cognitive Science is, so I have to “unpack” it on my resume, and list the disciplines. I always make sure I emphasize the Computing element (for example, the Computational Linguistics), that always catches their attention. Technical Writing employers were really receptive to this degree. Sometimes I had to explain the skills I learned, but once they knew, they thought it was excellent. As I said, the engineers are always thrilled to have a writer with a technical background (the more technology I know, the less they have to teach me), and Product Management is always equally pleased to have someone with Human Factors to help them improve the usability of the product. I think they also appreciate the structure in my writing, which I owe greatly to the background in Logic and reasoning.
Q. I’m sure you’ve been able to use your Cognitive Science skills directly in a work situation; do you have any good stories around that?
A. I use my degree every second of the day trying to keep up with the technology of the engineering team. It’s quite hard, and the Computing has been an enormous advantage. Probably the analytic and design skills are next: for example, our 5,000-page document set is actually composed of thousands of re-usable “chunks” of content in a content repository. We write and maintain the “chunks” and then build the books out of sets of chunks. Our system is very efficient and very powerful: it allows just two writers to maintain a huge document set. It’s one of the only systems of its kind locally, and I think that’s because it requires such strong design and analysis skills, which fewer writers have. It’s actually very like programming, and I don’t think I could have designed and implemented system without my background in programming.
Q. Have you noticed your Cognitive Science skills translated into transferable job skills?
A. I am astounded how much of my degree has translated into directly applicable job skills. I thought I was taking those courses just for fun.
Q. Any word on the street in your field about where Cognitive Science graduates are being hired?
A. Not really. I’m the only Cog Sci graduate I know in technical writing (technical writers all seem to come from eclectic backgrounds: history, philosophy, hardware engineering, literature).Some writers (perhaps one in 10) will have a certificate or diploma in technical writing, but most just worked their way in and “paid their dues” along the way.
Q. Tell us about the conferences you’ve been to, why you went, and what you were looking to get out of it.
A. Recently, I went to a conference on structured writing (that’s this stuff where you write in “chunks”), which is related to what I’m doing at work. I followed that up with a 10-week online XML course. That one was offered in partnership with Carleton University. I’m trying to improve my XML skills so I can work with the XML-based content management systems. Sometimes I’ll attend Technical Writing conferences.
Q. Tell us about the professional organizations you belong to, why you joined, and what you were looking to get out of it.
A. I belong to the Society for Technical Communicators, which is the main organization for technical writers. I also belong to the Editors Association of Canada, which I must say is a very effective organization. They provide editor certification tests, have lots of support materials, and have a great job “hotline.” It’s a terrific bunch. I’m not as active in the STC. These organizations provide a good way to keep your skills current, communicate with professionals with the same interests as you (like my interest in content management, for example), and keep up with news in the industry.
Q. Looking back... what advice do you have for current students?
A. If I were to do it over again, I would take academic advice earlier. I ended up with tons of credits and I thought I was done. In fact, I had enough credits, but not enough upper level credits. Because I was on the “mommy track” and was only taking a course or (at most) two at a time, this cost me two years: ouch. The other thing is that before going on to graduate school in one of the target disciplines (say Philosophy or Computing Science) I think it’s really mandatory to take a year or so to remediate your background in that discipline. Otherwise, you’re still trying to acquire the basics while everyone else has moved on to a different conversation.
The heart of the Cognitive Science Program lies in its ability to facilitate creative cross-discipline thinking. Cognitive Science at SFU is proud to be the home of many thoughtful students who have found imaginative approaches to connect their broad interests in ways that allow them to get the engaging education they want. Learn more about other Cognitive Science Program alumni.