Career Outlook for Technical Writers and Editors

The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s 'Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2002-03 Edition, Writers and Editors,' is recommended reading for those considering technical writing as a profession. Some of the main points highlighted in the handbook make interesting reading.

Klariti (2003). Careers>TC>Writing>Technical Writing

Career Outlook for Technical Writers to 2010

Most professional writing jobs still require a college degree either in the liberal arts with a preference for Communications, Journalism, and English. Competition is expected to be less for lower paying, entry-level jobs. Writers who fail to gain better paying jobs usually can transfer readily to communications-related jobs in other occupations.

Klariti (2007). Careers>TC>Technical Writing

Careers For English Majors: Where Are They And How Can Departments Help?

The market for English majors is poor; yet with concentration, awareness of skills, strong support, and sufficient information, recent graduates and career changers can find excellent positions. In 1980, after performing two surveys of the career paths of 550 humanities majors and publishing a guide to career options, I resigned my academic post and began a full year of part-time teaching, medical and technical editing, and several other jobs, including career counseling. As a career counselor I collaborated with another former academic to develop a variation on the familiar career seminar for humanities majors.

Trzyna, Thomas. ADE Bulletin (1983). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Careers for Professional Writing Majors  

A short article about careers in technical and professional communication.

Aronson, Anne. Metropolitan State University (2005). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Careers in Technical Writing

Contrary to what many people assume, work as a technical writer involves much more than sitting alone at your PC. The job requires plenty of contact with technical professionals, from programmers to project managers, to write and design documentation for software. Solitary? Not quite. Collaborative? Most definitely.

Hoffman, Allan. Monster.com (2001). Careers>Writing

Coming into the Workplace: What Every Technical Communicator Should Know—Besides Writing  

Working successfully as a technical communicator involves a great deal more than a thorough knowledge of professional skills and capability in the craft. Working at this kind of job means dealing with all sorts of people, handling all sorts of assignments and dealing with all sorts of corporate agendas and requirements that have seemingly little to do with getting the project out the door. But it’s all in a day’s work, and if you want to keep the job, you’ve got to accept and actually operate within all of those guidelines, strictures, rules (written and unwritten) and mores that make up the corporate structure.

Barker, Thomas, Rebecca A. Fuller, Deborah J. Rosenquist, John Schladen and Thea Teich. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Workplace>Writing>Technical Writing

Competentieprofiel Technische Communicatie

STIC-leden kunnen zich uitstekend vinden in het competentieprofiel voor de Technisch Communicatie-specialist. Dat blijkt uit de resultaten van de enquête die de werkgroep Opleiding en Trainingen in het najaar 2007 aan de STIC-leden voorlegde.

STIC (2008). (Dutch) Careers>TC>Writing>Technical Writing

Considerations for Hiring Technical Writers

If you have a group of stressed out and overworked technical writers and need to add to your staff, hiring the right technical writer can be a challenge. The author provides some tips on the hiring and interview process and what you might look for in exceptional technical writing candidates that will best fill the needs of your group of technical writers.

Rastocny, Philip. Writing Assistance (2008). Careers>Interviewing>Recruiting>Technical Writing

Cover Letter Tips

A selection of writing samples for cover letters, CVs and resumes.

CvTips.com. Careers>Resumes>Cover Letters>Writing

A Day in the Life of a Senior Technical Writer

Any technical experience helps, because once you have a little, it's easy to get more. For example, if you understand the basics of programming, it's easier to learn about additional languages. Once you know the basic terminology, it's easier to learn more and you have the words to ask the right questions. I've found that degrees are not required if you can perform, but a technical or writing degree is always welcomed.

Sereno, Lynda. Binary Girl (2000). Careers>TC>Writing>Technical Writing

Do All Writers Need a Literary Agent?

What kind of contract do I sign with a literary agent? Here are some things to consider.

About.com. Careers>Freelance>Writing

Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): Changing Bosses

Switching bosses within the same company is not an entirely smooth process. On the day of the crossover, I showed up to work and discovered my badge and my email deactivated. It took most of the day to get security to reactivate my accounts.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Contracting for Fun and Profit

Because I am working at this job through a contract, rather than as a regular employee, there are some situations unique to my position. In the technical writing industry, many writers work on a contract basis through an agency. This type of employment is called contracting, although you may also hear it called consulting. I prefer the term contracting because I associate consultants with people whose job is to advise a company on one issue or another. That may or may not describe a particular technical writing assignment.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Writing>Consulting>Technical Writing

Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): First Day

Rule number one for a contractor is to never panic about what happens your first day. First days are naturally chaotic, and often companies are not fully prepared for you. Because contractors are usually brought in to solve a particular problem, the people are anxious to get you started, but companies, especially large ones, are not geared for quick action.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Advice>Writing>Technical Writing

Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): Interview and Negotiation

My face-to-face interview with the company was similar to my phone interview. So similar, in fact that more than once I found myself answering the same questions I had answered over the phone. They did throw a couple curve balls at me, however. The strangest question I was asked was, 'If we called your references, what would they say about you?' I was unprepared for this one, and I ended up talking more about my references than about what they would say about me.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Interviewing>Writing>Technical Writing

Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): Phone Interview

When I originally spoke to the recruiter on the phone, she gave me a brief description of the job and asked for my rate. We negotiated the rate for a few minutes and came up with an acceptable number ($25 an hour) and she sent me an e-mail with the full job description and a short agreement asking me to confirm her representation and my rate. I sent back my confirmation and that was it for a while.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Careers>Interviewing>Writing>Technical Writing

Does Globalization Spell Trouble for Technical Writers?

The nature of work for traditionally white-collar professions such as technical writing, is also changing. While a growing number of professional writers is opting for the life of the freelancer, and enjoying the freedom and earning potential that this lifestyle can provide, many permanent full-time writing positions are being eliminated when work is delegated to temporary or contract workers.

Zvalo, Peter. Writer's Block (2001). Careers>Writing>International

Don't Wait to be Downsized!

Sure, the economy's booming now, but as the Asian crisis becomes the North American crisis, it pays to remember Newton's famous law of gravity: what goes up must come down again. And, of course, when the economy comes down and pension fund managers start asking those awkward questions about why they should remain invested in your company's stock, managers have a lemming-like tendency to trim staff to make room for short-term profits and long-term plausible deniability. As a technical communicator, you're obviously well up on the hit list, which some might see as a bad thing--but there's a silver lining to every cloud (or, in our case, a copper lining; they don't pay us well enough for silver). In fact, the good news is that it's easy to ensure you're the first one fired, so you can leave before the job becomes mundane without looking like a quitter. Then there are all those perquisites (severance pay, a little downtime)...

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Careers>Unemployment>Planning>Technical Writing

Écriture Technique: Une définition et commentaires au sujet des offres d'emploi

L'ecriture technique est une limite qui represente un ensemble d'activites de plus en plus large qui sont concues pour communiquer l'information comprehensible qui peut aident a peuple soit productive. Le contenu cree par les auteurs techniques a traditionnellement implique des articles comme 'comment-' aux manuels, aux guides de reference et aux rapports de corporation. L'apparition de nouvelles technologies, de tendances et de coutumes nous incite a augmenter l'armature de la reference qui entoure les activites d'un auteur technique.

Je Ne peux pas Obtenir Édité (2007). (French) Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Elance Writing and Translation Projects

A list of job opportunities in writing and translation.

Elance. Careers>Job Listings>Writing>Language

Entering the Technical Writing Field

Technical writers produce, organize and edit scientific and technical information, crafting language that can be understood by people who service, maintain, or operate various types of equipment. To gather data about the subject matter, they may observe production processes, interview production and engineering staff, or refer to trade journals and other such publications.

Miller, Susan W. Los Angeles Times, The (2001). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing

Estimating a Technical Writing Project

How do you go about estimating the number of hours that a project would take?

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2000). Careers>Consulting>Writing>Technical Writing

Estimating Resources in Technical Writing

Project management principles that can easily be applied to working as a documentation manager.

Prabhakar, Rahul. Blogspot (2006). Careers>Management>Project Management>Technical Writing