Technical skills trump writing skills
If you are trying to get into technical writing, you may find it is a sad fact that much more emphasis is placed on your technical skills than your writing skills. It seems it is assumed that writing is easier to pick up than technical skills. Or perhaps the assumption is that everyone can write, but not everyone has technical know-how. Take a look at this list of requirements for a fairly low-level technical writer position I found (really, it was the first one that came up on Indeed).
Requirements:
- Expert in MS Word/Open Office
- Experience with Adobe InDesign cross-references
- Experience with Adobe Illustrator or equivalent illustration software
- Able to perform basic graphic design tasks, such as arranging information, creating icons, finding artwork etc. to create attractive layouts
- Able to work with non-native English speakers and deliver multiple assignments in parallel
- Able to work with both planned and last-minute assignments
Notice that the word “write” is not even included in the list of requirements at all. However, there are several software titles they want you to know.
Here is another more technical role, also from a search on Indeed:
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree. Advanced degree preferred.
- 6+ years of technical writing experience, including experience researching and writing excellent developer documentation.
- Working knowledge of two or more of following:
- Application development (Javascript, JSON, DSL)
- Web user interface development (HTML, CSS, Javascript)
- Extract, Transformation, & Load (ETL) techniques
- Machine learning concepts (linear regression, PCA, decision trees, k-means clustering)
- Ability to read code and write code examples.
- Skilled in use of documentation development tools & methods. (DITA, XML authoring tools)
- Experience working in a range of delivery and media formats—including online help, printed guides, HTML—knowledge of wiki’s a plus.
- Ability to work in an agile development environment.
- Strong communication skills with that ability to work across functional units.
- Self-motivated, organized, and able to work independently and make independent judgments.
First, I want you to notice that years of experience are the second in the list. In my last post I discussed how experience is king, and that certainly comes up here. Now notice the list of technologies required to get this job. They want you to be knowledgeable in application development (programming), web development, machine learning, DITA, and agile development practices. Each of these is its own world of learning, and can be broken down into specific technologies and disciplines. The only line in this list of requirements about writing at all is combined with the candidate’s years of experience.
These two jobs demonstrate some of the range of what is available for technical writers. However, little attention is given to the skill of writing itself, while there is a great deal of concern for the technical skills involved. As an ex-English teacher, this is maddening! It takes many years to learn to write well, whereas some technical skills can be learned in a short bootcamp or tutorial. I can attest to this myself, since I learned the technology almost entirely on my own.
So what can you do? Before the Internet, it would have been difficult to learn each of these disciplines, but not anymore. In another post I will go into much more detail about how you can learn these skills, but I don’t want you to go away empty-handed. Here is a list of places to get started.
Resources to improve your technical skills
- sololearn.com (my favorite free place to learn programming languages).
- agilemanifesto.org to understand the basics of agile (hint: it’s more of a philosophy than a technology).
- learningdita.com if you want to learn DITA and XML.
- w3schools.com/html to learn HTML and other web technologies.
- helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/tutorials-explore.html to learn Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, or Adobe Photoshop.
- idratherbewriting.com to read a great blog on in-the-trenches technical writing, or go through his free API documentation course.
This is a good start. It really depends on the type of work you want to do and what you’re interested in. If you find you are especially drawn to one technology, it may be you want to look for a technical writing job in that area. Have fun learning!
programming, Technical skills, Technical Writing, technology
Experience is King
As I said in the last post, How to get a job in technical writing, there are two main obstacles that you have to overcome to get into technical writing.
1. Experience is king.
2. Technical skills trump writing skills.
Before I go into each solution in detail, I want to give you an idea of how problematic these obstacles are. I had a number of phone interviews that began and ended with the phrase, “How many years of experience do you have as a technical writer.” Unwilling to lie, I told them I had worked with a startup some, and then tried to point them to my skills, as well as my extensive portfolio. I had the mistaken idea that if they knew what I could do, years of experience would be less of an issue.
I couldn’t be more wrong. Most interviewers would not be dissuaded by any list of skills or accomplishments. They only wanted to know how many years of experience I had as a technical writer.
I want you to notice the wording here. They often used that exact phrase. They didn’t just ask me how much experience I had, but how many years of experience. I learned that until I had at least one year under my belt, I had no satisfactory answer to give.
The worst case in point was when I had gone through four interviews for one company. I met with the current technical writers, took a writing test, which I passed. They asked me some technical questions, which I also passed. It seemed they thought highly of me because they passed me on to the hiring manager. So far, so good. The manager was the guy who could actually make an offer, so I thought I had a good chance.
From the moment we started it was clear he had not read my resume because he never asked me about anything on the resume. He also never referred to my online portfolio. Immediately he asked, “How many years of experience do you have as a technical writer?” I told him about my experience with the start up, but that it was never full-time. From that point on, the interview was essentially over.
I know I’ve painted a bleak picture here. One that has been confirmed by other technical writer colleagues I’ve talked to. But just because it is hard does not mean it is impossible, and I did eventually get a job from someone who valued my skills and the experience I was able to gain. Here are some practical ways you can gain experience.
Help out a startup. Even if there is no pay involved, getting some experience this way can change everything. My little expense writing a white paper for my friend’s startup got me into a number of interviews. And you’d better believe I listed that on my resume and on LinkedIn. One good place to search for startups is through AngelList. They specialize in startups and recruiting for startups.
Volunteer. This is similar to the startup idea. Often charities cannot afford for someone to rewrite their employee manuals or technical manuals like how to install and use certain kinds of software. Often this can be geared towards new employees. Offering to learn about, and then create, a step-by-step guide for new employees might be a real help. You could do this for an animal shelter, church, public radio station, or relief organization. Keep in mind, you want to help with something technical enough that it will be similar to jobs you might apply for.
Find an internship. This mostly applies for those of you who are getting a degree in technical writing. If that’s you, an internship is a great way to go. Many companies offer them for recent gradates or those still in a college program for technical writing.
Contribute to an open source project. This may be very difficult or almost impossible. In fact, I hesitate to add it at all. Logging into GitHub and contributing to anything in a meaningful way is very difficult. The existing documentation is often so poor that it is hard to find a foothold to get a start. Other contributors might not reply to you if you ask questions. When they do reply, they often want you to read the code like a programmer and make sense of it yourself. It might take months to get a handle on what is going on at all. Now, if you have such expertise or experience to do this successfully, then this might really work out for you. There are innumerable projects that need documentation and they would welcome the help. But for most, this is a path to the most frustration with the least to show for it.
Another time, I will discuss creating your own work samples that could land you a job. But that will be when I talk about portfolios. For now, consider getting some experience with a startup or nonprofit. If you have the skills or experience to tackle an open source project, then go ahead with that route.
If you have any other ideas for getting experience in technical writing, feel free to leave a comment.
experience, job, Technical Writing, technical writing experience
How to get a job in Technical Writing
There are two categories of people interested in technical writing. Those who have received a degree or certificate in technical writing, and those who want to make the switch from another career. While you might think those with a degree or certificate have all the advantages in the job market, that is simply not the case. Without experience and a good portfolio, employers will seldom even consider a candidate.
Since I recently made the switch into technical writing, I thought I’d pass on what I learned along the way.
Observations from my experience
Before I get into what you can do to get a job in technical writing, let me give you a couple of disappointing realizations I had as I was looking for my first technical writing job.
Experience is king. Companies will act as if they want passion and skills, but over and over I was passed over because I did not have work experience in technical writing. In fact, many hiring managers did not even glance at my portfolio or resume, but only asked me how many years of experience I had as a technical writer. Getting through this barrier was difficult, and is one reason I am writing this blog.
Technical skills trump writing skills. This was frustrating. As an ex-English teacher, I would have hoped my writing skills would carry more weight, but in interviews, my writing ability consistently came second to my technical skills. By the way, really technical technical writing jobs pay more. Writing API documentation for software developers pays more than writing procedural manuals for HR. Search through a job board to discover what kinds of technical writing jobs are available in your area.
What you can do
Having said the above, the market is great to get into technical writing. Here are some things you can do to get your foot in the door.
Start with a good resume. Even with all the online tools available, employers still want to see a resume (in Word or PDF). It should include any experience you have related to technical writing. Make sure to list any skills you have learned that apply as well.
Write custom cover letters. Since a hiring manager often struggles to match your resume to the job description, write a custom cover letter that you send with each application. The letter should point out how your experience or skills match their job description point-for-point, at least as much as possible.
Update or create a LinkedIn account: This will likely be how many companies will find you. Come back to your LinkedIn profile often to update it. Spend as much time on this as your resume. Stay away from job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, Monster, etc. About 2% of people find jobs through these, but a lot of low paying recruiters will find you here and fill up your inbox and voicemail.
Create an online portfolio. Portfolio samples are often requested before an interview. Putting it online makes it easier to discover and share. I did a presentation a while back on how to do this, and my notes and resources can be found here. Create a tutorial or other technical writing docs and put them on this site. Here’s an example of mine.
Build up your skills. Use a job board such as Indeed and do a search for “Technical Writer” and see what skills are most in demand. Then start training yourself in these skills. If it’s a piece of software you don’t know, see if you can get a free trial version of it and learn the basics. Then create something you can put on your portfolio to demonstrate your skill with that program.
Build up your experience. I found a startup that needed some technical writing and wrote a white paper for them (I had to first learn how), and I also made them a tri-fold brochure. You can volunteer for a non-profit and write a manual. Any experience is useful.
Don’t do it alone. Find technical writers on LinkedIn and add them to your connections. Attend a local STC chapter meeting or a Write the Docs meetup near you. Ask for advice, make connections, and find out about job openings.
I will expand each of these points above in more detail in the coming weeks, but this is a start. Feel free to leave comments below about your experience in searching for work in, or getting started in technical writing.
