Career Development
While the Internet has always been a place where you can learn about anything, open courseware seems to be more readily available than ever. Whether you’re interested in learning more about technical writing or you want to just find out how to use technical writing in your business, the more you know, the more you can fully utilize this type of writing.
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Interestingly enough, technical writing has not always been a proper profession. While it certainly was used in creating product manuals and in developing user handbooks, it wasn’t until 1980 that technical writing became a recognized profession – according to the legal system. Though perhaps this wasn’t necessary to do, a court case solidified the idea of a technical writer – and paved the way for the profession today.
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With all of the professional organizations out there, why would anyone want to join another? They cost money, they take up time, and, often, they present few rewards to technical writers. Until, now, that is. The American Medical Writers Association offers memberships to students and to medical writers, helping everyone stay connected and up to date on current medical writing practices.
Perhaps this is a membership with rewards.
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MIT’s OpenCourseWare is an online catalog of course materials designed to help those who may never get a chance to enroll at school of MIT’s caliber. With free access to past class materials, students (and those who wish to become students again) gain access to past class syllabi, lectures, and more.
Technical communication in the medical and public health field is in high demand today, and in the Spring of 2007, MIT offered an undergraduate course for those who wanted to learn more – Introduction to Technical Communication: Perspectives on Medicine and Public Health. The courseware from that class is available for free through the MIT OpenCourseWare program (some textbooks require a purchase).
The course description reads:
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Technical communicators may face changes within their companies that will either require them to start creating marketing materials or face changes in the job market that make transitioning to marketing communications seem to make financial sense. Some technical writers may even want to make the transition voluntarily in order to explore other types of writing in their career. Being able to pitch in and do double duty in both the engineering and marketing groups can also increase a writer’s value to the company, perhaps providing a little extra job security.
But hitting the F5 key to refresh your career and changing your mind set to develop materials that persuade after many years of developing materials that instruct can seem a bit daunting. This article by Christy Simard takes a look at how technical writers can successfully transition to the marketing side of the house by looking at the similarities and differences between technical communications and marketing communications.
Read: Making the Transition from Techcom to Marcom
Technical writing isn’t something that simply happens incidentally anymore. While technical writers might have been good writers in school and then had the technical experience to bolster their writing expertise, times are changing and schools are offering degrees in technical writing.
At Carnegie Mellon, students are able to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Technical Communication. Students will take classes to help them become technical writers in one of two different tracks:
- Technical Communication (TC)
- Scientific and Medical Communication (SMC)
Those who maintain a B average in these programs at Carnegie Mellon will be able to apply for internships in technical writing, helping them get valuable experience that will support their career development. The documents that students write during these internships will be the beginning of a portfolio that students can then pass on to prospective employers, allowing them a better chance of getting a job when they’re out of school – or perhaps while they’re still in school.
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According to oDesk’s findings: “the demand for writing skills continues to heat up, with positions involving technical writing up 1758 percent and blogging up 974 percent over last year.”
While you’ve read countless stories about the downturn in hiring, especially for people who are just now entering the job market, those with a knack for writing and an eye for details might just prove to get the summer job they need, and possibly a career they didn’t know they wanted.
The Next Wave of Technical Writers
In the summer, many permanent staff members might be heading out on vacation, so temporary help is a great way to fill up the ranks without getting behind in the technical writing work. College and university graduates or current students can seek out technical writing jobs online or at local medical and technology companies (or by checking through our technical writing jobs and looking for junior or intern positions), and find better pay than a typical summer job might bring.
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According to this San Francisco class advertisement, marketers need to learn technical writing in order to create effective cover letters and to hook clients.
Marketing Night School
When: Thursday, June 9 5:00p
Location: Atkins – Faithful+Gould, San Francisco, CA
Price: $25 – $150
This four-part professional development series is “designed to meet our marketers ever changing needs in a more hands on setting.”
TOPICS INCLUDE:
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Being a technical writer requires an individual to have a variety of skills, not the least of which is a strong sense of communicating to a target audience. However, many a technical writer has been passed over for employment because the tech writer lacked experience with a specific piece of software – such as Adobe’s Framemaker. Unfortunately, this can extend so far as insisting on experience with a specific version of the software or else that candidate can be vetted out of the hiring process very quickly.
While in some cases insisting on experience with a specific software tool may be justified, employers shouldn’t overlook the fact that technical writers are skilled in learning and then passing on what’s been learned to others. If the technical writer doesn’t fully understand the product or software he or she is charged with documenting, presenting information about that product or software in clear terms is impossible.
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Want to improve technical writing at your company? Seminars are a good way to add extra training for your team, without having to do the teaching yourself.
The American Management Association is offering 17, 3-day intensive seminars in 2011 on technical writing for IT/computer personnel, engineers, scientists, and people in R&D, though anyone who has to handle or manage technical writing or technical writers will benefit.
Bring a current sample of technical writing to receive feedback on how to make it more effective.
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