The topic of finding work as a technical writer came up on a mailing list I subscribe to recently, and I want to share some advice here. I have been a job seeker in this market many times, and I was also involved in recruitment for a while some years ago, so I have literally been on both sides of the desk in the recruitment process.
As a result, I have seen dozens of CVs (resumés) from technical writers and my first piece of advice is to make sure that your CV is as near to flawless as you can make it. Not only does it need to be relevant to the job you are applying for, it needs to look good as well. I know some recruiters and agencies use keyword searches to screen candidate CVs and don’t actually read most of them, but if you are lucky enough to get your CV in front of a hiring manager you want your piece of paper to stand out. Don’t be scared to use white space to create a clean, uncluttered layout. It can make a difference. If nothing else, it shows you’re a professional. Read more
The following question appeared on a mailing list for technical writers that I subscribe to:
Would a technical writing or technical communication graduate *certificate* (rather than a master’s) be useful in trying to find a technical writing job for a university graduate with a B.A. in anthropology from UCLA and no further higher education beyond that?
I replied to the poster and explained that entry-level tech writer jobs are not easy to find at the best of times, and that at the moment they are very few and far between, irrespective of where you are located. Read more
In a recent discussion thread on LinkedIn, someone asked for opinions about the job description for a vacancy for a “Programmer/Writer”. Was it possible they asked, for someone to be both a software programmer and a technical writer? Was it true that only someone who was a programmer could understand software well enough to write about it? Or was it a misunderstanding of the real role of the technical writer? Read more
Summer is often a slow time for new work, and this year the general economic situation has made things much work. I have been reading various job boards to see if there are any technical writing contract jobs that I might be suitable for. In a number of otherwise promising vacancy notices I have come across what I call the security clearance paradox, which goes like this: the advertiser states that candidates should have security clearance before they can apply. I don’t have security clearance so I can’t apply. Read more
