Today we had a chance to talk to Ping Fang, one of our technical writers and team leaders in the Shanghai office. Ping has recently celebrated her tenth anniversary working at Sigma Technology China. She is the first one to celebrate this jubilee since our operations in China started back in 2006.
Congratulations to the anniversary, Ping, how do you feel about being a member of Sigma Technology family for ten years?
It’s hard to express my feelings with just one or two words at this moment. I must say that I’m so lucky to be a member of the Sigma Technology family, and even for ten years. Sigma Technology has made me know more about the technical writing world and helped me build self-confidence and competences to go further in this area. On the anniversary, when I opened my mailbox and saw that Nate Zhang (Managing Director in China) sent a greeting to me copying the whole company, I felt so overwhelmed. It was beyond my expectations.
How has your professional journey developed over the course of these years?
Before I joined Sigma Technology, I worked as a technical writer-consultant at another company. I truly enjoyed working with our client, and my client (later became Sigma’s customer as well) recommended me applying for a job at Sigma Technology so that I could continue working for them. I checked the company’s website and sent my CV. That’s how my journey here started. I have been working on different assignments as a project coordinator and technical writer. Besides, I took over the role of coach group meeting driver in Sigma Technology Shanghai team during the past two years and the improvement driver role from this year.
When I reflect back on that time, I feel so grateful that we found such a good match with Sigma Technology. I believe that we have grown together – I as a writer, and Sigma Technology as a consulting company in China.
How did your career in technical writing begin?
My first technical writing job was at an international German company where I worked with GUI. After having tried a few other areas, I realized that technical writing is the occupation I want to choose for my future.
Making a choice is important but not so easy. I must say that I am thankful to my mentor for encouraging me trying other possibilities based on my own interest in a wider world.
What do you work with now?
I work with technical documentation at our client, one of the leading telecommunication companies. We are quite a small team of technical writers working on the project. Currently, we plan to migrate the product documentation to DITA. Since we don’t have an information architect in our team, it is my responsibility as a team leader to make sure that the migration goes successfully.
I appreciate that we get to work closely with the development teams on the project. Sometimes we get to set up and install the products we describe in the documentation. We are also the ones reviewing the development logs to ensure high quality and style consistency of the product.
What do you value the most in your job?
I have found myself. I am doing what I like and know how to do it. I get support from the managers. This is very important to me. My managers encourage me to try new things. For example, this year I became an improvement driver in our Sigma Shanghai team.
I am very thankful for the trust and support. I have been given many opportunities to test my skills.
You have an active agenda. Tell us more about your new role of improvement driver.
All our colleagues continuously work on introducing improvements to their assignments. However, since we work on different projects, we realized that we need to share information inside the team in a more systematic way. This would help us find the opportunities how other projects can learn and develop. The improvement program is going to be our long-term initiative, where everyone can share improvements. We plan to have monthly meetings in Shanghai team and quarterly meetings on a Sigma company level where we will share the experience.
Thank you, Ping, for your time and your answers. Lastly, could you tell us what your passion is?
I am passionate about finding solutions to all the issues I encounter, both at work and in personal life. Having a family and a small son, I also learned to be quick in taking the right decisions. Apart from being fast, I want to make sure that I perform the tasks as perfect as possible. This might be challenging sometimes, but the results encourage me a lot.
Sigma Technology China
Sigma Technology China was established in 2006 under the strategy of following our global customer from Europe to China. After almost 12 years of development, we have already become one of the best professional companies to provide consulting services for information development in China.