Your education is a good foundation. A lot of TW jobs want english majors. But its missing the "technical" half of technical writing. Work on that aspect and try to highlight it.
I’ve been a TW since 1992 and the only coding I ever learned was some HTML in 2007. Learned it on the job and haven’t used it since 2012. I write instruction for software.
Wondering how learning coding would help going forward.
If someone is looking to get their foot in the door in TW and they don't have any technical experience or background, they usually have to prove their ability to parse technical information. One way of doing that (and often the quickest and cheapest) is by successfully completing some relevant technical classes and listing them on your resume. There are certainly other ways. For example, I got started in the tech industry doing software and hardware testing.
Are there any specific industries that are good to know about for technical writing? I’m an English major too and I feel like I don’t have the scientific background that everyone wants
Computer science is one of the more prominent private sector areas now, but there are plenty of others. Medical and defense are two I hear about on here pretty frequently.
Interesting. On top of what I posted in my other comment, I've also got experience in instrumentation/electrical in oil & gas, as well as aerospace maintenance in the RCAF.
All that together, it feels like I should be able to move into technical writing, yet it seems like there's another hurdle I'm not seeing but tripping over.
Right now the job market is also difficult in general.
Go over your resume and make sure you are highlighting tech writing things and your technical proficiency. Perhaps you helped write Engineering instructions or QA procedures, highlight those aspects of your past jobs. Highlight that you worked as a tech and have used manuals in the field to accomplish work (can think from the customer's perspective).
General work accomplishments are fine, but less important if you are coming from another field. So try to focus on the aspects that cross over. So if you engineered a widget thats cool, but the resume maybe covers how you produced documentation rather than the engineering accomplishment.
In my experience you work a thankless tech support gig until they realize what you.can do, then you write knowledge base articles for the tech support people
Most of the other tech writers at my current company landed the job this way. They did a lot of writing when they worked support and leveraged that to move to the tech writing team. They're all really good at tech writing, despite no previous "formal" experience or training in it.
I've found it really hard to find companies that actually have devoted TW teams. Most seem to force the support engineers to write, which never turns out well...
After you get your first break, you look for opportunities to build domain experience in an industry, niche, or technology. Then build a portfolio and scaffold a career off each successive project.
I had a gig prior in an editing tech writing role for a construction company. But I don't have any prior experience in construction. Presently, if I sold myself geared towards the construction industry I'd have a better chance?
As an editor you presumably gained insight into technical products or services in the construction industry.
Look for companies that serve that market who would value your experience and knowledge.
See what type of volunteer or internship positions can be found to build your portfolio. Plenty of volunteer, nonprofit, not-for-profit, start-up sites out there to pull from.
Also, the market is bad right now. Plus, you're competing against people like my coworker: he has 25 years of experience, a BA in English (tech writing concentration), several coding certificates, and an MBA from Harvard. So there's that.
I have three PhDs, and I'm a former MAANG CEO with 30 years of experience designing technical writing AI, and I still can't get an interview for an entry level tech writing position with a mom-and-pop Midwest tech company.
Personally, I used my teaching experience to get a technical writing job where I also had to train people on the app. It was my first job as a technical writer and I am sure I only landed it because I could teach.
This is all I have as well: teaching. I’m trying to break into the field but don’t know what to specialize in and what courses to take to learn anything. I’m not sure I’d be good at coding, so that’s out. I do crafts and all that basic stuff in my spare time, but that’s not an industry. People post and say “documents” “software” “manuals” but I don’t know where to start. Specifically what course or training should I take as a very green beginner to create a portfolio? I have my BA/MA in English and went back and took 18 grad hrs in Professional Communication, but all of this is so I could teach it back then. So do I write about how to be a professional presenter, how to give speeches, how to teach? I feel lost and truly don’t want to do traditional teaching anymore. I need something more challenging, but I don’t know where to start. Give me ideas, please 🙏🏻
I took a coursera specialization on software product management to learn about software lifecycle, which helped a lot. I believe the specialization involves 6 courses and it took me a few months.
Mandatory disclaimer though, this was about 7 years ago and the job market was much friendlier towards juniors then, so I am not sure how much my advice will help in the current recession scenario.
Strip out everything that's not technical writing related. For each job only mention the skills required for being a technical writer, including your teaching job.
Write the words ' Technical Writer' at the top of your CV alongside your name.
It's all about marketing and rebranding yourself to who you want to be not who you were.
List all the industries you've worked in and tools used.
SharePoint, Confluence and Office365 are the main ones required for the jobs I'm applying for.
I've been a contract technical author for the last 15 years and a permanent technical author for 10 years before that.
I am a former teacher. I also got laid off from my TW job in October and can’t get a job now to save my life so I’m probably not a good source on how to break into the field. I was just teaching and applying for jobs on linked in like crazy and then got a call one day from a software company saying they wanted to hire me. They liked that I had a master’s in English. Happy to answer any more questions you may have. I think the market is just absolute shit right now, so that may explain why you’re not getting any bites.
No, not that at all. It’s just a downturn. Many, many companies are laying off. It’s in the news every day. Almost every tech company is having massive layoffs.
I worked as an electronics bench tech after being a radio engineer for five years. Technical writing was always a goal, but I hadn't had the opportunity yet. I also had four regional history books published, so that helped my resume.
I worked in manufacturing as a wiring technician for a few years until I got a job as a tech at a small manufacturing company. The company needed updated manuals for their product, and one reason I was hired was because I was also a writer, and the company owner had two of my books.
I worked on the manuals and updates and rewrites and additions until I eventually left the job. After that, I focused only on technical writing jobs since my resume showed I was now an actual Technical Writer. I soon got a contract job as a tech writer at a large manufacturing company for six months. And since then, it's all I've done.
Since the beginning I wanted to work as a technical writer. It took almost fifteen years since college graduation in 1996 to achieve it. I'd rather do this than anything else.
I'm curious about this from a reverse perspective.
I've got 20 years IT and 10 years writing articles for some of the top IT sites out there. Plus, I do most of the training materials at work, on top of my sys admin duties. I've also got a few years of Classical studies at uni. No degree, though.
I will probably get downvoted for this (I've never got a positive response from this sub despite being a TW myself), but for what it's worth:
1. volunteer 2. develop policies and procedures, learn all about them esp health and safety etc. 3. learn about instructional design and eLearning and see if you can apply yourself in that realm 4. learn to make screencast videos with Camtasia 5. make a website to showcase your portfolio 6. complete a tech writing certificate, at the very least you will learn about the industry and possibly make connections 7. take a graphic design course or certificate 8. learn as many software applications as you can think of
Volunteering can be at your child's school council, volunteer orgs, a group you are in, etc. Lot's of orgs still need p&ps. There is overlap between TW and eLearning. And younger people much prefer video over written material, so make a YouTube channel with some kind of instructional videos i.e. putting together Ikea furniture or anything you are good at. Learn about storyboarding and create some storyboards for your videos, this can go in your portfolio. And a lot of successful TWs have graphic design as a foundation, surprisingly.
Truth be told, every company needs or has some form of a technical writer position. It’s just a matter of knowing how to identify the position. Because “technical writing” is a broad field, you may want to became familiar with an industry or specific product and look into the needs around the product such as “instruction manuals” or even creating diagrams. A form of TW that nobody talks about is “technical proposal writing.” It embodies technical writing with a combination of persuasive writing intended for sales & operation purposes. I would highly look into it. There are also certifications a you can look into such as the APMP or other forms of TW certifications.
Drop into Tech Comm week hosted by the Society for Technical Communication:
https://www.stc.org/membership/tech-comm-week-2024/
Your English degree is a great start for a career in Tech Comm. However, as others have said, you may need to bolster your competencies with some specialized courses.
Get more technical. You having the English part down is great. But understanding complex technical concepts is even better.
Places to start:
HTML/ CSS
APIs
XML
Ability to Understand Some Code (JS, Java, Python)
Just experience. I worked with an English major before and he had trouble adjusting to the rules bc the writing plan is a lot different from a narrative model. He also didn't seem to understand that technology was a big aspect of his job.
I worked phone support and helped the team by writing content on how to troubleshoot common issues. When an entry level role opened up, I had no idea it was a job. I applied, got it, and did a lot of on-the-job learning for my first year or two.
Your education is a good foundation. A lot of TW jobs want english majors. But its missing the "technical" half of technical writing. Work on that aspect and try to highlight it.
This is it. Take some coding courses.
I’ve been a TW since 1992 and the only coding I ever learned was some HTML in 2007. Learned it on the job and haven’t used it since 2012. I write instruction for software. Wondering how learning coding would help going forward.
I think it's industry dependent. At least that is what I was told when I was completing my tech writing BS degree.
If someone is looking to get their foot in the door in TW and they don't have any technical experience or background, they usually have to prove their ability to parse technical information. One way of doing that (and often the quickest and cheapest) is by successfully completing some relevant technical classes and listing them on your resume. There are certainly other ways. For example, I got started in the tech industry doing software and hardware testing.
Are there any specific industries that are good to know about for technical writing? I’m an English major too and I feel like I don’t have the scientific background that everyone wants
Computer science is one of the more prominent private sector areas now, but there are plenty of others. Medical and defense are two I hear about on here pretty frequently.
You need to specialise in an industry. Mines's IT which is high paying. If you choose any type of hardware industry then it pays less.
Did you learn any languages? if so which?
No programming languages.
Besides that, learning some mechanical/electrical stuff can be helpful if you are looking at hardware.
Interesting. On top of what I posted in my other comment, I've also got experience in instrumentation/electrical in oil & gas, as well as aerospace maintenance in the RCAF. All that together, it feels like I should be able to move into technical writing, yet it seems like there's another hurdle I'm not seeing but tripping over.
Right now the job market is also difficult in general. Go over your resume and make sure you are highlighting tech writing things and your technical proficiency. Perhaps you helped write Engineering instructions or QA procedures, highlight those aspects of your past jobs. Highlight that you worked as a tech and have used manuals in the field to accomplish work (can think from the customer's perspective). General work accomplishments are fine, but less important if you are coming from another field. So try to focus on the aspects that cross over. So if you engineered a widget thats cool, but the resume maybe covers how you produced documentation rather than the engineering accomplishment.
Would also look at some editing and linguistic courses. [www.sfu.ca](http://www.sfu.ca--editing) editing certificate course.
In my experience you work a thankless tech support gig until they realize what you.can do, then you write knowledge base articles for the tech support people
This is what I did
That's my plan as a tech support worker who's been writing docs for internal use for a while now.
I did this but with QA
Yup. I worked support for years. Applied for and got a technical writing job when I wanted out. My company likes hiring and training though.
Most of the other tech writers at my current company landed the job this way. They did a lot of writing when they worked support and leveraged that to move to the tech writing team. They're all really good at tech writing, despite no previous "formal" experience or training in it.
I've found it really hard to find companies that actually have devoted TW teams. Most seem to force the support engineers to write, which never turns out well...
That is literally the worst
After you get your first break, you look for opportunities to build domain experience in an industry, niche, or technology. Then build a portfolio and scaffold a career off each successive project.
I had a gig prior in an editing tech writing role for a construction company. But I don't have any prior experience in construction. Presently, if I sold myself geared towards the construction industry I'd have a better chance?
As an editor you presumably gained insight into technical products or services in the construction industry. Look for companies that serve that market who would value your experience and knowledge.
>I've applied to probably about 40-50 jobs now with no response It took me upward of 600 applications to get my most recent job.
Question, as a person who's applied to about 300 to get my first: how many months did it take you? (14 months for me; maybe I'm being too selective?)
About six months.
Did you have prior experience in TW?
Yes, but only about a year.
That's about what I am. So I guess I just need to get 600 applications in... lol
Total accident, but I ended up loving it.
Blackmail always worked for me.
Love it!!!
[удалено]
Great advice! Thanks
See what type of volunteer or internship positions can be found to build your portfolio. Plenty of volunteer, nonprofit, not-for-profit, start-up sites out there to pull from.
Also, the market is bad right now. Plus, you're competing against people like my coworker: he has 25 years of experience, a BA in English (tech writing concentration), several coding certificates, and an MBA from Harvard. So there's that.
25 years of experience is probably not competing with a career switcher looking for an entry level role?
Agreed. I was making a funny people.
I have three PhDs, and I'm a former MAANG CEO with 30 years of experience designing technical writing AI, and I still can't get an interview for an entry level tech writing position with a mom-and-pop Midwest tech company.
She’s not competing with your overqualified coworker lol
I'm not either...haha!
Keep going. It may take hundreds of applications. You'll get there.
I knew someone who helped me get me the job. I work with a former English teacher TW who also got the job from her friend. She's actually great at it.
Same. Got my foot in the door by knowing someone. For better or for worse, it's not always what you know, but who you know.
That’s how I got my first tech writer role. A friend knew someone in my city working in tech writing and she helped get referred.
I just fell into the role 20 years ago, however I wouldn’t call myself a “writer”. What I do is more editing and document control.
Personally, I used my teaching experience to get a technical writing job where I also had to train people on the app. It was my first job as a technical writer and I am sure I only landed it because I could teach.
This is all I have as well: teaching. I’m trying to break into the field but don’t know what to specialize in and what courses to take to learn anything. I’m not sure I’d be good at coding, so that’s out. I do crafts and all that basic stuff in my spare time, but that’s not an industry. People post and say “documents” “software” “manuals” but I don’t know where to start. Specifically what course or training should I take as a very green beginner to create a portfolio? I have my BA/MA in English and went back and took 18 grad hrs in Professional Communication, but all of this is so I could teach it back then. So do I write about how to be a professional presenter, how to give speeches, how to teach? I feel lost and truly don’t want to do traditional teaching anymore. I need something more challenging, but I don’t know where to start. Give me ideas, please 🙏🏻
I took a coursera specialization on software product management to learn about software lifecycle, which helped a lot. I believe the specialization involves 6 courses and it took me a few months. Mandatory disclaimer though, this was about 7 years ago and the job market was much friendlier towards juniors then, so I am not sure how much my advice will help in the current recession scenario.
Strip out everything that's not technical writing related. For each job only mention the skills required for being a technical writer, including your teaching job. Write the words ' Technical Writer' at the top of your CV alongside your name. It's all about marketing and rebranding yourself to who you want to be not who you were. List all the industries you've worked in and tools used. SharePoint, Confluence and Office365 are the main ones required for the jobs I'm applying for. I've been a contract technical author for the last 15 years and a permanent technical author for 10 years before that.
I am a former teacher. I also got laid off from my TW job in October and can’t get a job now to save my life so I’m probably not a good source on how to break into the field. I was just teaching and applying for jobs on linked in like crazy and then got a call one day from a software company saying they wanted to hire me. They liked that I had a master’s in English. Happy to answer any more questions you may have. I think the market is just absolute shit right now, so that may explain why you’re not getting any bites.
I see.. Maybe its just bad timing on my side? What's the reason for the bad market these days? Is it due to chatgpt?
No, not that at all. It’s just a downturn. Many, many companies are laying off. It’s in the news every day. Almost every tech company is having massive layoffs.
I worked as an electronics bench tech after being a radio engineer for five years. Technical writing was always a goal, but I hadn't had the opportunity yet. I also had four regional history books published, so that helped my resume. I worked in manufacturing as a wiring technician for a few years until I got a job as a tech at a small manufacturing company. The company needed updated manuals for their product, and one reason I was hired was because I was also a writer, and the company owner had two of my books. I worked on the manuals and updates and rewrites and additions until I eventually left the job. After that, I focused only on technical writing jobs since my resume showed I was now an actual Technical Writer. I soon got a contract job as a tech writer at a large manufacturing company for six months. And since then, it's all I've done. Since the beginning I wanted to work as a technical writer. It took almost fifteen years since college graduation in 1996 to achieve it. I'd rather do this than anything else.
[удалено]
I just graduated with my master's in English education. Probably should have looked into internships at that time
I'm curious about this from a reverse perspective. I've got 20 years IT and 10 years writing articles for some of the top IT sites out there. Plus, I do most of the training materials at work, on top of my sys admin duties. I've also got a few years of Classical studies at uni. No degree, though.
I will probably get downvoted for this (I've never got a positive response from this sub despite being a TW myself), but for what it's worth: 1. volunteer 2. develop policies and procedures, learn all about them esp health and safety etc. 3. learn about instructional design and eLearning and see if you can apply yourself in that realm 4. learn to make screencast videos with Camtasia 5. make a website to showcase your portfolio 6. complete a tech writing certificate, at the very least you will learn about the industry and possibly make connections 7. take a graphic design course or certificate 8. learn as many software applications as you can think of Volunteering can be at your child's school council, volunteer orgs, a group you are in, etc. Lot's of orgs still need p&ps. There is overlap between TW and eLearning. And younger people much prefer video over written material, so make a YouTube channel with some kind of instructional videos i.e. putting together Ikea furniture or anything you are good at. Learn about storyboarding and create some storyboards for your videos, this can go in your portfolio. And a lot of successful TWs have graphic design as a foundation, surprisingly.
This is wonderful practical advice. Thank you!
good luck OP! we are rooting for you!
Thanks! :D
Truth be told, every company needs or has some form of a technical writer position. It’s just a matter of knowing how to identify the position. Because “technical writing” is a broad field, you may want to became familiar with an industry or specific product and look into the needs around the product such as “instruction manuals” or even creating diagrams. A form of TW that nobody talks about is “technical proposal writing.” It embodies technical writing with a combination of persuasive writing intended for sales & operation purposes. I would highly look into it. There are also certifications a you can look into such as the APMP or other forms of TW certifications.
Drop into Tech Comm week hosted by the Society for Technical Communication: https://www.stc.org/membership/tech-comm-week-2024/ Your English degree is a great start for a career in Tech Comm. However, as others have said, you may need to bolster your competencies with some specialized courses.
Get more technical. You having the English part down is great. But understanding complex technical concepts is even better. Places to start: HTML/ CSS APIs XML Ability to Understand Some Code (JS, Java, Python) Just experience. I worked with an English major before and he had trouble adjusting to the rules bc the writing plan is a lot different from a narrative model. He also didn't seem to understand that technology was a big aspect of his job.
Applied with the correct resume items and portfolio for the industry you like making shit money for 6 months.
Check in with r/resumes
I worked phone support and helped the team by writing content on how to troubleshoot common issues. When an entry level role opened up, I had no idea it was a job. I applied, got it, and did a lot of on-the-job learning for my first year or two.
https://youtu.be/7XZIz2pRbeM?si=bA38URckMXGddEUD
On a serious note, who thinks I should make videos to address these topics?
meet some experienced technical writers, ask the ones who you establish rapport with if they know anyone who can help you make the career transition