Searching for a job is hard work, no doubt, and it often isn’t as simple as sending out a general resume and strolling through an interview process. Instead, it’s often a multi-phase process that takes time and effort: You update your resume. You craft a letter of application. You select samples from past projects that [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Developing an Annotated Portfolio
Question: I’m just getting started in technical writing and am getting ready to start job hunting. I have experience working on a number of projects; however, I don’t have any project that I can call my “own” or a collection of projects that I could call a portfolio. How can I overcome this lack of [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Five Strategies for Conveying “I’m a Will-Do Person” in Your Job Search Documents
Although many potential employers do look to match an applicant’s skills, experience, and knowledge to the job they’re filling, they are really looking for one basic thing: Can–and will–this person do the job that they need done? With that in mind, your goal is not only to showcase your relevant skills, knowledge, and experience, but [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Developing a Letter of Application
Question: I’ve developed my resume and will also likely be filling out job applications. Should I still take the time to develop a letter of application? And, if so, what should it include? A letter of application can be an important tool in helping you land an interview–and ultimately, the job you seek. Although resumes [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Working Internationally: Advice and Thoughts
I’m an American technical writer working in New Zealand, and my jobs here have sent me to Singapore and Australia. When I told my friends and acquaintances that I was planning on moving to another country, their responses ranged from disbelief to envy. One person asked me, “Is that actually possible?” Others confessed that they [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Take Control: What to Do When Job Interviewers are Tongue-tied
At a recent job interview, I was sitting before two interviewers who, between them, were certain of only one thing: They needed a technical writer. One potential boss, the one with the highest notch on the company’s IT totem pole, hid her face strategically behind the screen of her laptop. She glanced around it a [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Taking Your Show on the Road: Constructing and Using an Online Portfolio
After I spent days wandering the aisles of warehouse stores looking for a five-inch binder, the idea of rethinking my portfolio started to make sense. Eventually I found the binder, but it was cheap plastic, not the brass and leather that had been my portfolio’s original housing. Clearly, my practice of simply adding a new [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Techie Technical Writer Series, Part III: Faking It as a Techie Writer
This is Part 3 of 3 in the Techie Technical Writer Series See also Part 1 of this series, Being a Techie Writer See also Part 2 of this series, Becoming a Techie Writer These articles have been filed under Getting Started in Technical Writing If you’re not yet a techie technical writer but are [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Techie Technical Writer Series, Part I: Being a Techie Writer
What's the difference between a "technical" writer and a technical "writer"? Depends on who you ask, but it can often be measured in tens of thousands of dollars annually, dramatically reduced frustration in working with developers and engineers, freedom to work more independently, effectively, and efficiently than you thought possible, and even in the ability to telecommute or freelance more readily. Read more of this technical writing article »