Technical writing jobs

I met with a faculty adviser yesterday in the technical writing department and then sat in on her three-hour lecture. I hadn't sat in a classroom (traffic school excluded) in 15 years and it was a blast. Prof was amazingly engaging and had the class yucking it up talking about ethical issues in technical writing (who knew right?).

The faculty adviser's selling points on the program are that while you definitely don't have to have it to get a technical writing job, it's a great way to develop the skill-set and enhance your earning potential down the road. She said many students are hired out of the program before completing their degrees and complete it over time to help them get their next job. The program plugs you into potential hiring networks, and the internship you're required to do (you usually get paid $12 to $25 an hour for those) gives you some experience, contacts and references.

Draw your own conclusions. Obviously, faculty advisers aren't going to tell you that there program is a waste of time.

As you can probably tell, I'm leaning heavily towards pursuing that route.

Most of the listings I've seen for technical writers require experience in the field and I haven't gotten a nibble on any of the resumes I've sent out (for what it's worth, I've probably just sent out five or six). The certificate program requires completion of just 24 units, and you learn stuff you need to know to be competitive in the field. Most journalists are probably are much, much more advanced than me in most of those areas. To say my publishing skills are remedial would be an understatement. I've never used quark, adobe, etc., I've never created a PDF and I basically just use MS Office as a glorified text editor.

If you have publishing skills, the training you'd get in a certificate program would probably be less valuable, but still worth considering if you're serious about pursuing this path.

 

If you know anyone at a larger company, try to have them put you in touch with a hiring manager in whatever department handles their writing needs, and ask that person how much stock he'd put in a certificate from said university. I would bet he'd say he weighs it very little -- maybe it would help for a new hire out of college without any resume, but for someone who has been in journalism it would be redundant and not helpful.

Those computer skills are nice, but many states have versions of those classes available for free or very low cost at the employment office.

 

If it's not a full four-year program, the connections/internship opportunities might be worth it.

A lot of the jobs, at least the ones I've looked at, don't actually call for design work. Though it'd certainly be a selling point.

 

An HR guy at a software company told a friend who turned in a resume for me that my journalism experience wasn't enough at their company. Obviously that doesn't mean a certificate degree gets me in either, but worth asking. I'd think the instruction/equipment at the state employment office wouldn't really be comparable to what I'd get at a university, but who knows.

The program I'm looking at is a 1-year 24-unit deal that includes a paid internship. Tuition costs would be in the $3,700 to $5,000 range.

 

There's a lot of tech writing jobs in my hometown, but because it's a big military region, they're almost all pegged to military-type stuff and usually require copious amounts of subject matter expertise and secret clearance.

A lot of it is pure dumb luck. I put in for a bunch of tech writing/corporate communications jobs in the last two years and never got a callback except for the place that ended up hiring me, because they were really taken by my ability to write on deadline, even though I knew little about the topic in which they traffic. Some places really want a writer, though in my limited and anecdotal evidence, they were more interested in the technical aspect.

Job is somewhat boring compared to newspapers and I feel like I'm coasting at times, but it's a steady job where my work is generally appreciated and is paid for at a much higher rate than any newspaper job I've held. When the time comes to leave here, it won't be for another newspaper, that much is certain.

 

I've looked at tech writing positions for some military contractors that, like Mystery Meat said, would be boring but pay well.

The thing that gets me is the companies want deep experience and good writers. Not being in the military, contracting world or having government clearance has been the hurdle. Five years of knowledge with missiles and tanks isn't something most newspaper writers attain on the side.

Looks like if they have a job opening for a long time and can't find someone the company would consider hiring a qualified writer and help teach them along the way. Instead, their positions stay open for months and months.

 

Yeah, the "need X years of experience" part is a deterrent for me. Half the time I see it and don't even bother to apply.

Then again, I'm not sure how much it matters. One SJ'er told me he got a job without any tech writing experience.

 

Don't let "X years of experience" scare you off. A lot of times -- and in my particular situation -- my newspaper writing/editing experience counted toward X.

 

Ditto for me.

 

I had a tech writing job for a little while earlier this year, and it was a bad experience, but I think it was more because of the company.

During the job interview, I emphasized my ability to condense complex information (I'd spent a year in news, writing about budget issues with city government and schools) into plain English on a strict deadline. On the test, I had to design a page for an instruction manual, using either Word or InDesign. My boss told me that not only was I one of the few to finish in 60 minutes, I was the only one to do so using InDesign.

The money was (projected to be) $40k, which was a significant raise over anything I've ever made in journalism.

I was briefly trained regarding the product and got to work designing an instruction manual. Any problems they had, I took care of quickly. I finished the project about a week earlier than they had planned and my boss said it was good. Then, near the end of the project, the CEO wanted me to write a letter. I talked with him, wrote nearly verbatim what he said, but made it sound coherent and logical. He didn't like it. My direct supervisor told me I was doing a good job, but that the CEO is a bit temperamental. Little did I know, he basically would change his mind mid-day and expect me to read his mind. After another re-write, he told me to leave the room and yelled at my direct supervisor.

The last few days... there was no work for me to do, and it made me paranoid. I kept asking my boss if there was anything I could take off his hands, anything I could help him with and he said no. I just sat there, doing nothing but continually re-reading, re-editing that damned manual. Eventually, I got my final paycheck and my boss met with me, saying that I had been working too quickly (though the work was quality, he said) and it just didn't work out. They were looking for something different. I was dumbfounded.

So basically... journalists CAN do technical writing. The challenge is exciting and the money is great. I just had a bad experience with the whole thing. Luckily I've found a full-time job in sports writing for a company that I love.