How to Get a Job in Technical Writing Mid-Career: A Hot Take
Should I switch my career or just take up badminton? *Shakes Magic 8 Ball*
Truth be told, I’m not the best person to ask about how to get a job in technical writing. My degree is in English and I took a concentration in technical writing, so I’m automatically set up for success there. I figured technical writing was how I could make the most money with a degree in BOOKS — I READ ‘EM. (WELL, SOME OF ‘EM.) Turns out, that was a true assumption. I’m not sure how much money you can make doing copywriting, or publishing, or anything else that lines up with obtaining a degree in grammar snob, but I do alright. I can pay for a roof over my head at least, and in these tryin’ times, outside of just surviving 2020, that is pretty high on the priority list.
I have had a fair few friends ask me how they can do what it is I do for a living, or at least get a start in it. Friends who are my age, or even older, and didn’t go to school for it, and don’t have my background. Here’s the thing, even if you don’t have a degree in English, but you have a degree in _something_ and you are literate, you can do technical writing… but first please ask yourself why you might want to. I won’t lie, it is often very dull and tedious work, but I happen to actually like taking the stuff that engineers write and forcing it into a human-readable shape. And yes, there is definitely something wrong with me. Ask any of my friends (
👀 who gave me this prompt and knows me IRL)… or any of my family members… grocery store checkout clerks… my dog…Look… just ask anyone who has interacted with me in any way ever.
“No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.” — H.G. Wells
When my focus is turned up to eleven I can spend HOURS fiddling with text, working it, reworking it, giving it a light massage… *lights a scented candle and puts on Shaday* y’know what’m sayin’? It’s my jam. Ask yourself if you actually want to stare at a screen and wordsmith things until they shine the best version of themselves out at you through said screen. It’s not everyone’s jam. Consider the fact that maybe what you really want is just a change from what you currently got goin’ on. Ain’t no shame in that game, honey.
That said, if you do, in fact, want to do what it is I do, (SO MANY COMMA SPLICES) and you’re trying to switch careers mid-stream, I think the most practical advice I can give you is to do it one of two ways.
Level Up through a Contract Work Side-Hustle
Personally, I don’t do contract work anymore. I think offering contract work, especially contract-to-hire work is an insult to qualified employees everywhere. I don’t get out of bed for anything less than full-time. It makes sense for some people (namely people without kids who don’t need health insurance, good benefits, or time off flexibility) but I am not those people, and I honestly never have been because I am a woman.
Soapbox aside, if you are trying to pull the ol’ career switcheroo, this actually might be a good option for you to gain some experience working on different projects or trying on different industries that might need some technical writing help! There’s also the bonus of potentially being able to do it part-time, on the side, while you’re still working at your normal 9–5 (unless that’s against your employer’s terms of employment, in which case, maybe don’t do that).
Simply because it’s contract work, there might be a lower barrier to entry. I never really pay attention to the years of experience “required” section on job postings anyway, but if it’s a short-term project they might just need a warm body in a seat to bang out some of the grunt work. (Is it just me or do most job postings read like you must have an insane amount of qualifications that no one can possibly ever attain or achieve in one lifetime?) I know people though, who will not apply to a job even if they have every qualification listed except for one teeny tiny little thing. My thinking, however, is that if the employer is desperate enough for long enough, and they haven’t found this mythical unicorn they’re looking for, they might start shuffling through their stack of applications and decide to give me a shot.
And as we all now know from watching Hamilton on Disney+, if you throw away your shot, you risk being haunted by the ghost of Alexander Hamilton as portrayed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
So, always give it a shot, even if your experience and the job posting’s requirements are not a 1:1, or don’t, and prepare to have your ears blessed with some catchy reprobations rapped at you from a founding father. To be completely honest, I don’t know if this apply-to-anything-that-strikes-your-fancy tactic actually works, all I can tell you is that I have consistently remained employed and I pull this crap all the time.
There are many different industries that utilize technical writers. Healthcare, government, pretty much any field where there are engineers present (mechanical, chemical, software, you name it — those guys all speak something that is definitely not English — but per my last email, part of technical writing is translation), and there are probably more industries too. Look idk I’ve been doing software documentation for so long now that it seems like that’s all there is or will ever be. Doing the odd contract job here or there seems like it could provide options to try out different flavors of technical writing and find out whatcha like. There are only 31 flavors though, just like Baskin-Robbins. You heard it here first.
The other thing contract work can do is help you build up your portfolio. Since I work primarily on proprietary and confidential tech docs, the amount of solid writing samples I have to show prospective employers is pitifully small. So if you can get your foot in the door somewhere and start building up samples, my theory is that those samples and smaller opportunities will snowball into bigger and better jobs in the future. Some people might call that opportunism, or job-hopping, but I call it taking advantage of a system (contract work) which is designed to favor the predominately young and the predominately male.
But I mean, what do I know, I started my career in corporate ‘murica making $13 an hour as a receptionist and LOOK AT ME NOW. I do alright. Some might call it aggressively okay. I have some dollars in my piggy bank. #humblebrag
Anyway, if you’re trying to switch careers into technical writing, there is, I think, another way to go about it, but it might be a little harder on your wallet.
Pull a Drake and Start From the Bottom
You could … hear me out… take a pay cut and …. I said hear me out… get an entry-level job doing technical writing.
It’s not the best way, but it is a way.
Our educational system is essentially the farm club for career training.
I didn’t design it that way. No one asked me for input.
But I do think it’s unfortunate that instead of pursuing an education based on what interests me, I am forced to think about the amount of ROI I can get from whatever degree I choose. I changed my major several times because I am restless and interested in a lot of different things. I just happened to completely luck out that my strengths (reading and writing) developed into a career in which I now get to learn about a lot of different things all the time.
We pigeonhole young people into careers they may not like or even want to do based on a decision they make when they’re 18, which is a stupid thing to do to young people. As a result, you may get to the ripe old age of 28 (like me, I’m definitely 28 years old, for real, I promise) a decade removed from that fateful decision, and decide you don’t want to do that thing anymore. Only now, all of your years of experience have been spent doing that thing, and when you try to apply to do something else, recruiters lol at your resume and they tell you no, or they send you one of those form emails riddled with typos and then you lol and now you’re in a lol loop that no one is happy about. So you have to lower your standards, and just keep lowering them, until you find something (probably entry-level) that’s acceptable.
I once worked with a guy I nicknamed T-Money that left a very profitable job in sales to switch careers and make probably somewhere in the realm of 30–35K per year just so he could learn digital marketing. He took a GIGANTIC pay cut, but he wanted to start a new career. From there he spawned his own business, and now I think he’s retired or maybe he moved to Costa Rica? I don’t know. He was an interesting cat. Personally, I think people that do more than just one thing for their whole life are the most interesting people.
Switching careers after you’ve already established several years in one industry or area of expertise is no easy feat. I’ve done it once or twice. But this is my practical advice for those that think they might want to wade on into these here technical writing waters: You don’t need to go back to school. I mean, you can, it couldn’t hurt, but it’s not really necessary.
Think of your ROI. Do a cost-benefit analysis. Would dumping more money into pursuing a degree in books n’ stuff really reap you that ROI in the long run? Probably not. If your degree is in Biology, then use that, and go seek out companies that might need a technical writer with a background in science n’ stuff. If your degree is in Biology but your interests lie in Finance then, yeah, maybe go take a class or two. If you already work for a company where technical writers exist somewhere in your stratosphere, go talk to them. Shadow them, and find out exactly how much they want to throw Microsoft Word into a lake, because that is the job. It’s not for everyone.
Really think about whether you want to do the word wranglin’ for a living. Like, reeeeeaaaaaally think on it. If you decide you want to be a professional grammar snob, then consider the industry you might like to go into, and either apply for some entry-level jobs (which probably means taking a pay cut) and try to work your way up, or take some (probably also entry-level) contract jobs, which might offer a little more flexibility at the expense of job security.
Neither of these options is great, but I’m just a tech writer who cross-stitches sarcasm onto tea towels and humor blogs to pass the quaran-time. That’s all I got. I don’t know what you were expecting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But How Do I Find These Entry-Level Jobs?
Job boards. Like LinkedIn, which is probably where you’re reading this anyway. That, or ingratiate yourself with a working technical writer, who likely has an inbox full of stuff they’ll never respond to, and ask them to forward you all of their unsolicited contract job emails.
If you liked what you read here, and you want more hot takes on technical writing, drop me a comment and I shall oblige because my attention span is short and quarantine is long.
Jen Brown currently does technical writing for Redwood Software, and she’s been picking apart what other people say for her entire life. Jen loves dogs, pistachio ice cream, coffee, and Internet culture. She also has a mildly unhealthy obsession with Kanye West.
