Career | I Heart Technical Writing, Tips, Tools and Templates for Technical Writers

Entries Tagged as 'Career'

5 Reasons Women Technical Writers Are Better Than The Boys

June 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Post written by Ivan Walsh. Follow me on twitter Technical Writing attracts women. They’re very good at it and make great team leads. Maybe I’ve been very lucky but it ‘seems’ that the girls are better as technical writers than men. Am I right?

How to Get Out of Technical Writing and into Higher Paid Jobs

May 18th, 2010 · View Comments · Jobs

How do I start a career in technical writing? How do I get out of technical writing? I get asked these two questions most every week. If your career in technical writing is stalling – or you just want a fresh start – then here’s some alternative career paths. Many Technical Writers have had their [...]

Are Online Degrees in Technical Writing as Good as Real World Universities?

March 24th, 2010 · View Comments · Career, Technical Writing

If you had a choice, would you hire someone with an Online Degree or someone who graduated from a real world ‘bricks and mortar’ University? I get emails most week asking if online degrees are worth the money, are they trustworthy, will people hire me, will I get ripped off… before we get into that, here are five universities that offer online degrees in technical writing. Are online degrees as good as real degrees?

How Stephen King Can Make You A Better Technical Writer

March 11th, 2010 · View Comments · Technical Writing

Scott says, “If you want to improve as a writer, you not only need to write. You need to read. Writing and reading are two sides of the same coin. You need to do both to achieve your potential.” I head downtown most weekends and buy 2 or 3 books, mostly business, history and some fiction. Every so often I run out of options (we’re in Beijing) and get something I usually wouldn’t buy, for example, Iain M Banks. Reading outside my comfort zone stretches me. I encounter writing styles, opinions, and information that I usually side-step.

Do you Earn As Much As These Technical Writers? 2009 Salary Survey Results

February 12th, 2010 · View Comments · Career

The WritersUA User Assistance has published details of its 2009 Salary Survey results, which includes a breakdown of salaries for technical writers and others in the tech comms field.

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Tags: Career·contract·Salary·technical writer

Who Makes The Most Money – Technical Writers with Strong Language or Deep Technical Skills?

February 7th, 2010 · View Comments · Career

Kai raised an interesting point about which skill (writing/technical) takes longer to master. Knowing how to structure and present information to users? Or knowing how to use a product or application? That got me thinking. If you want to make money as a technical writer, which area should you focus on? Sharpen your writing skills or deepen your technical knowledge, for example, learning how to document an API?

How To Differentiate Yourself As A Technical Writer

January 18th, 2010 · View Comments · Books I Like, Career, How To, Productivity, Snagit, Social Media

Tom Peters says, “the value of services will continue to fall” and that the only way to survive is to differentiate yourself from the competition. Is this true? How do you as a technical writer make yourself stand out from the crowd? If you don’t, what impact could this have on your career?

How Technical Writers Can Move Further Up The Food Chain

January 15th, 2010 · Comments Off · Career, Content Management, How To, Linkedin

Do you feel loved? Many technical writers feel unloved. They feel they don’t get the respect they deserve. I hear this on LinkedIn and Facebook: “people don’t respect the work I do.” Well, if that’s the case, here are a few ways to get more respect and move into a more rewarding career.

Which makes a Better Technical Writer – Writers with Language or Technical Skills?

January 14th, 2010 · View Comments · Career, How To, Jobs, Linkedin

Which of these would you hire to join your Technical Writing Dept? Someone with great writing skills but little technical knowledge or, for example, a Computer Science graduate with deep technical knowledge but average writing skills? We’ve been talking about this on LinkedIn and here are some thoughts.

Will Technical Writing be the 13th Best Job of 2010?

January 13th, 2010 · Comments Off · Career, Jobs, Uncategorized

Do you see any sign of recovery in the technical writing market? Most of the US technical writers I know are worried about their positions and see little sign that things will change this year. So with that in mind, WebWorkerDaily reports today on the best and worst professions for the upcoming year. “Satisfyingly for readers of this blog, almost a quarter of the best jobs consisted of roles suited to web workers and untethered employees, including software engineers, systems analysts, accountants, technical writers and developers in the top ten.”

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Tags: Career·job·Salary·Technical Writing

7 Ways for Technical Writers to Re-invent Themselves & Demonstrate their Value

January 9th, 2010 · View Comments · Career, Facebook, Linkedin

You’ve just being fired. The Technical Writing dept is closed. What do you do? This is a fact of life for many people today. Indeed, there is now a real fear that US technical writers will continue to lose their jobs to offshore companies, e.g. India & Poland. And it’s true; it’s the shape of things to come, I’m afraid. But rather than moan about it, let’s look at what you can do to re-invent yourself and find new, lucrative opportunities.

How to Interview Technical Writers Even If You’re Not a Technical Writer

January 8th, 2010 · View Comments · Career, How To, Jobs

Yes, I’m that terrible person who interviews technical writers and asks those awkward questions. Here are some of the things I’m looking for when I interview people. First, companies expect that graduates will have the same (more or less) writing skills – that’s a given. So, what they’re looking for are other qualities.

Why did you choose to be a Technical Writer?

January 6th, 2010 · Comments Off · Career, India, Jobs, Salary

Why did you become a technical writer? Some move into technical writing by accident (me!) while for others it was part of their career path. I spoke to some technical writers about this recently. Here’s what I learned.

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Tags: Career·education·India·Jobs·technical writer

Technical Writing News – Nov 27th

November 27th, 2009 · View Comments · News, Technical Writing

This week’s technical writing news. Paragraph Autonumbering in RoboHelp 8, Avatar Interactive Trailer Powered by Adobe AIR, What’s new in Acrobat.com, The Myth of Single-Source Authoring, Why The Future Has No Log In Button, Documentation as flash cards. Google Wave’s witty user documentation. What’s more important, content or process? SaaS-based ECM: It’s worth considering. Camtasia Relay 1.2 gets released and Tom Johnson explains why Help Authoring Tools Will Fade. Free Gift! Technical Communication Suite Keyboard Shortcuts from The RoboColum(n) by Colum McAndrew

How to Integrate Mind Maps & Process Flows into Twitter

November 26th, 2009 · Comments Off · Business Process, How To, Technical Writing

Tony Buzan created the mind map concept, a technique for capturing and structuring associations. We used Seavus Dropmind for gathering requirements, developing process flows and exploring use cases at a previous client. If you like visual information, then this is for you!