I have attempted to use Lua for shell scripting in the past and I agree with this assessment. I recently started learning Ruby specifically for shell scripting and find it to be the most ergonomic / productive.
Sorry to hear about your experience. I recently considered joining STC in an attempt to bolster my career a bit (as technical writer without a college degree), but wasn't sure the theoretical benefits were worth the membership cost. Sounds like they might not have been able to help much in that area.
Even before the STC called it a day, you'd probably be better served attending local tech writer meetups (assuming there are any in your area) or joining the Write the Docs community (https://www.writethedocs.org/). When I was toiling in the tech comm world, I found that both helped my in my career more than interacting with the STC.
Thanks for these suggestions. I subscribe to the Write the Docs newsletter, and this is good motivation for me to dig deeper into what they have to offer.
I think mileage may have also varied based on industry and location. I eventually found my way into tech as a writer anyways, but most of the people I met via the STC were not working at tech companies. Granted it was DC so lots of defense contractors and the like.
Just discovered a few US gov feeds yesterday, great resource. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also has quite a few feeds available: https://www.bls.gov/feed/
The first item under the "requirements" section for the Techical Writer position contains a typo -- you are asking for "99+" years of writing experience where I assume you mean "9+" years
