When I tell someone I do technical writing, they usually don’t know what that means. If they don’t work in one of a few very specific industries (tech, engineering, some medical fields), they may not even realize that kind of role exists.
Technical writing was not a path I considered (or even knew existed) until well into college. But technical writing is a well-paying and growing field where I see a lot of potential. Most tech writers I’ve worked with have interesting and circuitous career paths, and I always enjoy hearing how others entered the field.
Here’s mine.
Education
In middle and high school, I always loved writing and foreign languages. The humanities were my stronger subjects, though I also liked math and biology. I applied to colleges as an international economics major, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.
My college was known for its STEM programs (not so much humanities or business). I decided to try a computer science science and see how I liked it. I enjoyed and got an A in Intro to Java , so I decided to attempt a computer science major (unfortunately, it was the only A I got in my CS curriculum 😅).
Eventually, I added a second major in political science, mostly because I missed small classes and writing papers (and getting As).
Internship #1: IT Support
The summer after my freshman year I found an internship in the IT depart of a small retail ecommerce company. In that role, I supported corporate employees with their (numerous) computer issues. I did a lot of ticket monitoring and troubleshooting. The role involved a little informal documentation for things like VPN instructions, antivirus installations, and workstation security, which was my first (unknowing) exposure to technical writing.
Mostly this was a great experience to get familiar with a corporate environment (Outlook, tickets, meetings, etc.). But I also enjoyed working closely with my “clients” aka the people who were depending on faulty software to do their jobs (I’m looking at you, Adobe Creative Suite). From this experience I gained a lot of user empathy, witnessing first hand the importance and limitations of technology.
Internship #2: Information Developer Intern
In November of my sophomore year, an alum randomly reached out to me through our career development center website. She asked if I would be interested in interviewing for an “Information Developer Intern” position at a big enterprise software company.
Pro tip: Always upload your resume to your university’s career center, if they have one. It doesn’t take a lot of effort, and you never know who might be looking.
I had no idea what an “Information Developer” did, but I knew the company, and I thought it would at least be good interview experience.
Another pro tip: Always take the interview. Worst case scenario, you get interview practice, best case scenario you find your dream job.
I interviewed with both the hiring manager and my alum contact, who were both awesome people. The hiring manager described the job as essentially a documentation role with no coding needed. I also did a writing test where I described the clock app on my iPhone.
I received an offer for the internship and, after some deliberation, accepted. That summer I worked on a little API documentation, and a lot of interface design work. I also ended up doing some light coding in Java to rearrange the UI layouts, change labels, and add help text. This was my first experience with UX writing, though no one really used that terms. I also got familiar with Agile and the scrum process, as I was working with a team of engineering interns.
Internship #3: Information Design Intern
I ended up taking an offer to return as an intern to the same team for the next summer. There was a big focus on Design Thinking, UX writing, and documentation as design. I really enjoyed that aspect, and ended up spending most of the summer designing a mobile app for a new product. Some of this included building out the design system for native mobile apps, as it was the first in the business unit. My app never made it to production, but I learned a lot from the experience.
Full-time job #1: Content Designer
At the end of my internship, the company offered me a full-time role with what I felt was a generous salary, and I accepted. As a full-time Content Designer, I had my own product and worked closely with designers, engineers, and product managers. My role initially involved a lot of UX writing, guided tours, videos, and traditional documentation. The company also sent me on a full-time, six-week training on Design Thinking.
My role slowly morphed UX-User Research-Content hybrid role where I had a heavy design focus. Eventually due to instability at the company, a desire to move to a new city, and confusion over whether my role was UX, user research, or technical writing, I started looking for other opportunities.
I then did what many do when they have no career direction: took a job in consulting.
Full-time job #2: Consulting
I randomly applied for this job at a huge enterprise consulting firm through the company website. I was shocked I heard back at all. The interview process was pretty fast and all remote. I had a recruiter phone screen, then a first behavioral interview, followed by a case study interview, and second behavioral. The whole process took about three weeks.
Consulting interested me because I wanted to travel, get exposure to different industries, and get more of a business perspective. Unfortunately for me, I ended up on a long-term local project at a big bank as a business analyst. My work there was a lot of JIRA, Confluence, Excel, and PowerPoints.
I enjoyed learning about financial services and find that sector very interesting and impactful. But I missed doing more creative work and the tech/product-focused environment. I also found the networking required for consulting didn’t suit me, and couldn’t see myself sticking around long.
Full-time job #3: Technical Copywriter
I had been considering about going back to tech writing or design, so I started sending out a lot of cold job applications. This was in fall 2020 (prime pandemic season), and I couldn’t believe companies were scheduling interviews and hiring.
It took six weeks to go through the interview process for my current role, including four interviews and a writing exercise. I was really intrigued by the opportunity to be part of the marketing organization, as well as being the first writer at a fast-growing company.
Hopefully this helps give an idea of one path to technical writing! But if I’ve learned anything, it’s that everyone finds their way here differently.