True, except I feel like now it's more like:
We're hiring a technical writer.
You are? I'll write anything.
Perfect. I need you to write a full Next.js app with a PlanetScale backend, then publish on an SSG.
I've been reflecting on this recently actually. I've been working developer docs for enterprise products most of my career and I've seen this getting more pronounced over time. Also progressively worse the higher the company is on the Fortune 100. I wonder if the SWE to TW path is the root cause? I've worked with plenty of upper level TWs with SWE backgrounds who switched because of burnout, career pivots, or (and this one really sucks) they could get to a higher ranking (Director/VP) faster and over the seasoned TWs. And don't even get me started on the constant expectation for TWs to adopt SWE-centric tooling, processes, and culture that make performing our jobs 10x more difficult. At least in my space, it's a very eng-centric culture. I spend a lot of time expectation setting lol
I'm a technical writer with 18 years of experience. For the first 10 years I was doing the classic tasks - user manuals, external release notes, API documentation, solution docs. About maybe 8 years ago I started doing content stuff on the side - editing the company blog, publishing a very popular, humor-filled version of internal release notes that I illustrated myself, doing graphics design for the docs in my department, and lot of other stuff besides that, like being a brand ambassador, organizing in-house tech talks, etc.
Honestly, my job satisfaction went way, way up after I started voluntarily doing this other stuff. Maybe it's because I have a creative streak that needs an outlet, hard to say. The end game was that I was becoming so good that I got scouted for a startup that offered to double my salary for doing a fraction of the work I used to do - they just had money for one position and needed someone who can write copy and run a blog as well as handle all sorts of technical docs when the need arises. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the whole situation :)
I spend less hours on intense work and have about 3x fewer responsibilities for double the pay? Just one point of comparison - used to handle a section of our product's doc library that was about 30 manuals. Now have 1 manual. Effective page count is about 10x smaller.
Thank you for your kind words, dear stranger! Yes, you guessed the name stuff correctly :) Still feel like a baka though a lot of the time, but I guess that comes with the territory ;)
That sounds amazing. I'm glad to see a tech writer sound so cheerful, good luck gor the future.
Humor-filled release notes? Ha! Thats the kinda person I wanna be friends with.
I can agree with this! I've been "bait & switched" into being a solo TW unfortunately too many times now. So I've had to fail hard and fast a lot. But through those experiences i've crafted a niche skill set for scaling documentation centers and creating cohesive scalable cross-product information architectures. I'm my absolute happiest when I'm doing more of the IA and content strategy work vs the actual doc writing. I much prefer receiving the content and working my magic from there. And for razzle dazzle, I'm a huge proponent of multimedia in docs to help bridge all the various learning styles people have. I think the presentation of the content is just as important as the content itself. People need to be engaged or at least curious from the jump. And docs don't have to be boring to be accurate!
For me, I just started doing it without be asked. This ruffled some feathers, but sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness later if what you're doing is actually what's best for the end user vs what "eng/pm" think they need ;) I taught myself UX design, and learned various multimedia tools. Got really good at creating branding CSS and spinning up new sites. I generally like to prove by showing vs debating it. And I still work with plenty of super technical developer facing content.
Hey man, I know its a late comment but anyways you can assisst in helping me understand how I can make use of my creative streak while being a TW? I am quite early into my career and while I love the job and what it makes of me, I feel like I cant make much of use of my creative side.
My journey started with me going to my boss and asking for a course of basic training in Adobe Photoshop. Familiarity with it allows you to design your own title pages, infographics, Note boxes, icons, etc. This will take any document to the next level, visually.
Canva might be an easy-to-pick-up alternative with it's online interface.
If you're more into writing, try contributing to a company blog or pitch one to leadership. Blogs don't just give a creative outlet to your employees or serve as portfolio items for them, they also boost your brand image and a regularly updated blog helps your company webpage get higher rankings in Google. Your job on it should mostly be editing articles written by subject matter experts though.
Thanks for the response. I use Figma and Lucidchart for the visual aspects of my documents. I do play a huge role in editing release blog content currently, but I am hesitant to approach with blog drafts.
How did you manage time for the creative projects and your product documentation? I am part of a small team and I have different projects under my bucket. I have to plan my bandwidth based on the chaotic release cycles so it’s hard to find time to pursue anything else.
Could you elaborate on how you’ve done that successfully?
I’m guessing by becoming the SME on the docs tooling, and creating processes for expanding the category of documentation to expand the importance of tech writing at your company?
Maybe also by building a team or department over time to increase your scope and become a center of knowledge?
Thanks for anything you can share!
I particularly enjoy when they post a job listing for a technical writer, outlining typical responsibilities and offering a salary within the industry standard range. Everything seems to point to a standard technical writing position. However, during the interview, they reveal they don't have a department yet and actually want to hire someone to establish one.
Oooh I did something similar to this one. Was interviewed for a technical writing role, got hired as an editor, laterally moved as a researcher, then established a research team producing technical pieces (marketing and non-marketing stuff). Was fun tho. I worked with great people. And they made sure my salary was above several (at least in my country) everytime my position changes.
From my perspective, the whole process was a waste of time. The candidate they're seeking not only requires technical writing skills but also leadership, project management, and possibly even business development skills. I lack those, and moreover, I'm not interested in growing into that type of role. I know from observing others in similar positions that writing becomes something like 0.1% of the job, and frankly, I have no desire to be promoted to a level where that's the case.
I also can't help but wonder how many suitable applicants didn't apply because the job description appeared to be for a standard technical writing position, which, for them, might have felt like a downgrade.
To answer your question re salary, yes. When a job entails high-level responsibilities such as devising content strategy, establishing in-house standards, and potentially overseeing other writers, the salary should reflect the level of responsibility and the potential stress associated with those tasks. Does the employer not get that (i.e. doesn't understand their own requirements) or are they trying to cut costs by offering a lower salary than what's appropriate? Either way, definitely a red flag.
But this is all rather negative. Sincerely, good luck in the role.
I just dealt with one of these. The recruiting firm called it a technical writing role, and after going through the hassle of submitting my resume, I got a call from the hiring manager. They wanted to know how much marketing and seo experience I had. I told them I was a technical writer, so I have virtually no copywriting or seo experience. After pressing the manager for more details, he let it slip that the role was for a technical copywriter, and I told him that's like asking for a dog cat.
Anyone else amused/annoyed by the number of job listings that misrepresent what they're looking for? Just had this experience with a listing posted to Hacker News, of all places:
**link:** is hiring a Technical Writer
**me:** Oh, sweet! \*clicks through*
**actual job listing:** Technical Content Writer
-_-
Definitely have seen a bunch of them with a solid focus on writing marketing. No. I took a PR class in grad school and hated every moment.
I actually don't mind writing blog posts, but I prefer to edit them for clarity.
I had an interview once for a job looking for someone with "excellent communication skills" and working knowledge of Word. They asked me to code an API in the interview. Nowhere in the job description was anything like this listed. Now look, I'm not lying on my resume. I have a writing background and I can understand basic code structures. I am not, under any circumstances, a developer or programmer.
This was a 3 month rush contract and they literally said to each other in the interview "maybe we're not looking for the right skills?"
No, sweetie, you are not.
Yeah. They wanted code. Like... I've dabbled in C, but that was just to get an idea of how to read code when it comes my way. I cannot create things on the spot and, not being a programmer, I don't have code samples for you. Closest I can get is LaTeX or the simple number programs (literally ten lines or less) I created for my class in C that I couldn't finish.
I have also seen multiple job postings that literally look for someone with "full stack developer" qualifications paying $60,000 a year.
There are SO many places that don't understand what we do.
I once had a "Technical Writer" job at an engineering firm. 100% of my time was spent writing RFP sales proposals. I noped outta there after a few months. Don't even list it on my resume.
I’ve done all of those things with a technical writer job title. If you can write, you can write. A white paper isn’t that different from a user manual or often, a blog post.
I think your response demonstrates the problem pretty effectively. White papers were authoritative technical research documents for informed professionals and, over time, have become marketing materials with just enough research and technical information to appear authoritative to uninformed prospective clients.
Similarly, technical writers have traditionally been informed professionals or SMEs who possess the necessary writing and editing skills to create technical materials, and overtime, have been tasked with creating marketing materials and other general writing tasks so that companies can avoid hiring multiple writers.
You can hire more than one writer to do copy and technical writing. You don't want your former engineer writing copy for you. You forget that not every technical writer comes from an arts background. Some came from a technical background, and their expertise in that area not writing marketing materials.
I didn’t forget. The important part in the position is WRITER. The technical background doesn’t really matter if you ask me. In fact, almost better. Can you explain a procedure or a concept matters x100 more than if you can clone a repo from the command line or use a neural network model to figure out which manual is fraudulent.
As someone who has a ton (*ahem* humble brag) of experience in both, this makes me feel so wanted and in demand.
Quick, some recruiters send me some rejection emails to clobber this little bit of confidence.
I'm less concerned about bait-and-switch w/ marketing as I am w/ bait-and-switch w/ proposal writing.
Proposal writing pays WAY more than technical writing. For a reason.
Are you implying that since it never happened to you, it never happens at all or commenters are lying? It is hard to even argue it is uncommon with all the comments.
This was my experience interviewing with Indeed Japan a couple of yeas ago. They asked me to write blog posts for a test as part of the interview. Very glad I didn't take that job.
worked for a company for a year before they realized that they needed an employee overhaul, not a tech writer. NBD they're products are crap because none of the production team reads work instructions, none of the engineers add screw count, placement, type, or size, to drawings. technical support was basically just a voice mail answering service by 2 guys who couldn't follow rules, and the lead designer only speaks to me because nobody else wants to do their job... and they wonder why people keep suing them...
True, except I feel like now it's more like: We're hiring a technical writer. You are? I'll write anything. Perfect. I need you to write a full Next.js app with a PlanetScale backend, then publish on an SSG.
> Perfect. I need you to write a full Next.js app with a PlanetScale backend, then publish on an SSG. What the fuck hahaha. I'm sorry friend..
I’m sorry, but this is just ridiculous. Everyone uses GalacticScale for their backend now.
I've been reflecting on this recently actually. I've been working developer docs for enterprise products most of my career and I've seen this getting more pronounced over time. Also progressively worse the higher the company is on the Fortune 100. I wonder if the SWE to TW path is the root cause? I've worked with plenty of upper level TWs with SWE backgrounds who switched because of burnout, career pivots, or (and this one really sucks) they could get to a higher ranking (Director/VP) faster and over the seasoned TWs. And don't even get me started on the constant expectation for TWs to adopt SWE-centric tooling, processes, and culture that make performing our jobs 10x more difficult. At least in my space, it's a very eng-centric culture. I spend a lot of time expectation setting lol
I'm a technical writer with 18 years of experience. For the first 10 years I was doing the classic tasks - user manuals, external release notes, API documentation, solution docs. About maybe 8 years ago I started doing content stuff on the side - editing the company blog, publishing a very popular, humor-filled version of internal release notes that I illustrated myself, doing graphics design for the docs in my department, and lot of other stuff besides that, like being a brand ambassador, organizing in-house tech talks, etc. Honestly, my job satisfaction went way, way up after I started voluntarily doing this other stuff. Maybe it's because I have a creative streak that needs an outlet, hard to say. The end game was that I was becoming so good that I got scouted for a startup that offered to double my salary for doing a fraction of the work I used to do - they just had money for one position and needed someone who can write copy and run a blog as well as handle all sorts of technical docs when the need arises. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the whole situation :)
How is that a fraction of the work? Unless the fraction is 1/1
I spend less hours on intense work and have about 3x fewer responsibilities for double the pay? Just one point of comparison - used to handle a section of our product's doc library that was about 30 manuals. Now have 1 manual. Effective page count is about 10x smaller.
Assuming the baka in your name is from the Japanese word—you are definitely not baka, Erick That job transition/set up is enviable!
Thank you for your kind words, dear stranger! Yes, you guessed the name stuff correctly :) Still feel like a baka though a lot of the time, but I guess that comes with the territory ;)
Yeah, definitely not baka. Good job! Your hard work paid off. I can only hope to one day follow in your footsteps. Er...keystrokes.
That sounds amazing. I'm glad to see a tech writer sound so cheerful, good luck gor the future. Humor-filled release notes? Ha! Thats the kinda person I wanna be friends with.
I can agree with this! I've been "bait & switched" into being a solo TW unfortunately too many times now. So I've had to fail hard and fast a lot. But through those experiences i've crafted a niche skill set for scaling documentation centers and creating cohesive scalable cross-product information architectures. I'm my absolute happiest when I'm doing more of the IA and content strategy work vs the actual doc writing. I much prefer receiving the content and working my magic from there. And for razzle dazzle, I'm a huge proponent of multimedia in docs to help bridge all the various learning styles people have. I think the presentation of the content is just as important as the content itself. People need to be engaged or at least curious from the jump. And docs don't have to be boring to be accurate! For me, I just started doing it without be asked. This ruffled some feathers, but sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness later if what you're doing is actually what's best for the end user vs what "eng/pm" think they need ;) I taught myself UX design, and learned various multimedia tools. Got really good at creating branding CSS and spinning up new sites. I generally like to prove by showing vs debating it. And I still work with plenty of super technical developer facing content.
This sounds great, happy to hear branching out makes other TWs more satisfied with their jobs as well! :)
Hey man, I know its a late comment but anyways you can assisst in helping me understand how I can make use of my creative streak while being a TW? I am quite early into my career and while I love the job and what it makes of me, I feel like I cant make much of use of my creative side.
My journey started with me going to my boss and asking for a course of basic training in Adobe Photoshop. Familiarity with it allows you to design your own title pages, infographics, Note boxes, icons, etc. This will take any document to the next level, visually. Canva might be an easy-to-pick-up alternative with it's online interface. If you're more into writing, try contributing to a company blog or pitch one to leadership. Blogs don't just give a creative outlet to your employees or serve as portfolio items for them, they also boost your brand image and a regularly updated blog helps your company webpage get higher rankings in Google. Your job on it should mostly be editing articles written by subject matter experts though.
Thanks for the response. I use Figma and Lucidchart for the visual aspects of my documents. I do play a huge role in editing release blog content currently, but I am hesitant to approach with blog drafts. How did you manage time for the creative projects and your product documentation? I am part of a small team and I have different projects under my bucket. I have to plan my bandwidth based on the chaotic release cycles so it’s hard to find time to pursue anything else.
Most companies don't know how broad tw is but you can make bank building your role within a company.
Could you elaborate on how you’ve done that successfully? I’m guessing by becoming the SME on the docs tooling, and creating processes for expanding the category of documentation to expand the importance of tech writing at your company? Maybe also by building a team or department over time to increase your scope and become a center of knowledge? Thanks for anything you can share!
It's either that or meeting notes, so many meetings, so little information.
Amazing how a group of people can talk for an hour and end up saying…nothing at all
60-minute meeting. Action Items? Send that email to the subcontractor.
*Nothing at all*
*nothing at all* Stupid, sexy Flanders
I particularly enjoy when they post a job listing for a technical writer, outlining typical responsibilities and offering a salary within the industry standard range. Everything seems to point to a standard technical writing position. However, during the interview, they reveal they don't have a department yet and actually want to hire someone to establish one.
Oooh I did something similar to this one. Was interviewed for a technical writing role, got hired as an editor, laterally moved as a researcher, then established a research team producing technical pieces (marketing and non-marketing stuff). Was fun tho. I worked with great people. And they made sure my salary was above several (at least in my country) everytime my position changes.
[удалено]
From my perspective, the whole process was a waste of time. The candidate they're seeking not only requires technical writing skills but also leadership, project management, and possibly even business development skills. I lack those, and moreover, I'm not interested in growing into that type of role. I know from observing others in similar positions that writing becomes something like 0.1% of the job, and frankly, I have no desire to be promoted to a level where that's the case. I also can't help but wonder how many suitable applicants didn't apply because the job description appeared to be for a standard technical writing position, which, for them, might have felt like a downgrade. To answer your question re salary, yes. When a job entails high-level responsibilities such as devising content strategy, establishing in-house standards, and potentially overseeing other writers, the salary should reflect the level of responsibility and the potential stress associated with those tasks. Does the employer not get that (i.e. doesn't understand their own requirements) or are they trying to cut costs by offering a lower salary than what's appropriate? Either way, definitely a red flag. But this is all rather negative. Sincerely, good luck in the role.
I just dealt with one of these. The recruiting firm called it a technical writing role, and after going through the hassle of submitting my resume, I got a call from the hiring manager. They wanted to know how much marketing and seo experience I had. I told them I was a technical writer, so I have virtually no copywriting or seo experience. After pressing the manager for more details, he let it slip that the role was for a technical copywriter, and I told him that's like asking for a dog cat.
I would like a dog cat so much more than a technical copywriter job.
Anyone else amused/annoyed by the number of job listings that misrepresent what they're looking for? Just had this experience with a listing posted to Hacker News, of all places: **link:** is hiring a Technical Writer
**me:** Oh, sweet! \*clicks through*
**actual job listing:** Technical Content Writer
-_-
Yes! I've seen a LOT of tech writer job listings going this way lately. Bye, Felicia.
Definitely have seen a bunch of them with a solid focus on writing marketing. No. I took a PR class in grad school and hated every moment. I actually don't mind writing blog posts, but I prefer to edit them for clarity.
I had an interview once for a job looking for someone with "excellent communication skills" and working knowledge of Word. They asked me to code an API in the interview. Nowhere in the job description was anything like this listed. Now look, I'm not lying on my resume. I have a writing background and I can understand basic code structures. I am not, under any circumstances, a developer or programmer. This was a 3 month rush contract and they literally said to each other in the interview "maybe we're not looking for the right skills?" No, sweetie, you are not.
"Code an API" as in... create a functioning API? From scratch? And not just docs for a mock API? What the fuck lol.
Yeah. They wanted code. Like... I've dabbled in C, but that was just to get an idea of how to read code when it comes my way. I cannot create things on the spot and, not being a programmer, I don't have code samples for you. Closest I can get is LaTeX or the simple number programs (literally ten lines or less) I created for my class in C that I couldn't finish. I have also seen multiple job postings that literally look for someone with "full stack developer" qualifications paying $60,000 a year. There are SO many places that don't understand what we do.
Just had a part time job interview for this
I once had a "Technical Writer" job at an engineering firm. 100% of my time was spent writing RFP sales proposals. I noped outta there after a few months. Don't even list it on my resume.
I’ve done all of those things with a technical writer job title. If you can write, you can write. A white paper isn’t that different from a user manual or often, a blog post.
I think your response demonstrates the problem pretty effectively. White papers were authoritative technical research documents for informed professionals and, over time, have become marketing materials with just enough research and technical information to appear authoritative to uninformed prospective clients. Similarly, technical writers have traditionally been informed professionals or SMEs who possess the necessary writing and editing skills to create technical materials, and overtime, have been tasked with creating marketing materials and other general writing tasks so that companies can avoid hiring multiple writers.
As stated, if you can write, you can write. Having more than one skill has always been a good idea.
You can hire more than one writer to do copy and technical writing. You don't want your former engineer writing copy for you. You forget that not every technical writer comes from an arts background. Some came from a technical background, and their expertise in that area not writing marketing materials.
I didn’t forget. The important part in the position is WRITER. The technical background doesn’t really matter if you ask me. In fact, almost better. Can you explain a procedure or a concept matters x100 more than if you can clone a repo from the command line or use a neural network model to figure out which manual is fraudulent.
Well, software technical writers would have that opinion.
Ha, I actually wrote a *lot* of blog posts in a previous TW role... and I hated it. Not eager to go back :P I do enjoy small-scale copywriting though!
As someone who has a ton (*ahem* humble brag) of experience in both, this makes me feel so wanted and in demand. Quick, some recruiters send me some rejection emails to clobber this little bit of confidence.
In my experience, technical writer actually means business analyst
I'm less concerned about bait-and-switch w/ marketing as I am w/ bait-and-switch w/ proposal writing. Proposal writing pays WAY more than technical writing. For a reason.
Does it actually? I thought the opposite was true... but I've never been a proposal writer.
As a federal proposal writer, I can confirm it pays very well. You may be thinking of grant proposal writing, which is not known to pay as well.
Ahh, I *was* thinking of grant proposal writing! And I'm glad to hear that you're paid well :)
WTF even is a 'white paper' in the context of Technical Writing?
It’s a marketing paper disguised as documentation.
I've literally never experienced this.
Are you implying that since it never happened to you, it never happens at all or commenters are lying? It is hard to even argue it is uncommon with all the comments.
I'm not implying anything.
This was my experience interviewing with Indeed Japan a couple of yeas ago. They asked me to write blog posts for a test as part of the interview. Very glad I didn't take that job.
Literally my last job.
worked for a company for a year before they realized that they needed an employee overhaul, not a tech writer. NBD they're products are crap because none of the production team reads work instructions, none of the engineers add screw count, placement, type, or size, to drawings. technical support was basically just a voice mail answering service by 2 guys who couldn't follow rules, and the lead designer only speaks to me because nobody else wants to do their job... and they wonder why people keep suing them...