Are Certificate Programs Helpful for Transitioning into Technical Writing? [Collaborative Post]
I get this kind of question regularly from people who find my blog. I never quite know what to say.
Dear Tom,
I stumbled upon your blog in search of information about becoming a technical writing. I decided to shoot you a quick email in search of a bit of advice. I have a M.A. degree in English and have been working in education (secondary through college level) for the last 10 years. I’ve also created and edited a creative online literary site and adapted material from the site into a live show that has found success here in Los Angeles, where I currently live. I’m looking to transition into a new career direction that would combine my expertise in writing with my experience in education. Technical writing specifically for e-learning platforms seems like it might be a good option for me.
Based on your experience as a technical writer, do you think certificate programs in technical writing or instructional systems design would be wise for me to pursue??? Or, do they hold little value in the field? I have no direct experience in technical writing, though I may have the opportunity to begin editing pieces for a friend of mine who creates corporate e-learning platforms in the new year. Still, I worry I may have difficulty transitioning from the traditional education environment I’ve occupied for the last decade into the field without some kind of formal education. However, I don’t want to waste my money pursuing a certificate if it won’t be regarded positively within the field.
– Amy
Re certificates, any education is helpful, and if you have the time and money, go for it. However, sometimes in these academic programs, I hear things from teachers such as, “We teach the latest technologies here. For example, just this week we showed our students how to create drop-down menus in Dreamweaver.” Or I hear students say, “We’re learning how to create web pages in Word and upload them to a web site.” Cringe…
If you’re already a skillful writer, the challenge to transitioning into technical writing probably involves technical skills. No doubt the job listings require all kinds of technical know-how that you may not have. If this is the challenge, then a certificate program may not help you. I’m sorry. Academics are more focused on theory and concepts, techniques and methodologies — not tools. To learn tools, get a subscription to Lynda.com for $25 and go through the courses.
Lynda.com is great for learning tools such as Illustrator, Captivate, Photoshop, and other Adobe products. For more tech-comm-based tools, such as Flare, Robohelp, or Framemaker, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Work on learning a handful of tools and put together a portfolio showing your ability to use them. You could also find a mentor in your local STC chapter to guide you.
If you do plan to get a certificate, I think the STC’s certificate courses, taught by professionals in the field, will probably prepare you well.
Do you have any advice for this reader? If so, please add it in the comments below.
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I went through a local university’s tech. comm. certificate program and managed to land my first job as a tech writer from that (the instructor hired me into his company!) So I can say it worked for me. One caveat – I already had a moderate technical background, self-taught, and used the course to primarily learn the various software products that are in demand. Thanks for bringing up the topic Tom…good discussion starter…
I think the best way to find out whether a certificate course is useful is to talk to a few recent grads, and ask them if it helped prepare them for their career. Participating in local STC events can help people entering the field find contacts and learn about resources available in the area. Here in North Carolina, Duke University’s Certificate in Technical Communication program gets high marks.
I can also say it helped me. I landed two jobs from taking a certificate; one as in Eric’s case, and another from the prof’s referral.
As for content in the courses themselves, they were pretty topical and were taught by people working in the field and teaching on the side. So their insights were very relevant.
Probably not. You’ll find most non-entry level positions out there are either looking for 5-10 years of tech writing experience, or a background in the field (CS, Bio, etc) and proven writing skills. From what I’ve seen, employers ask for a certificate for entry level employees to ensure they have the skills before bringing them in. If I were in your shoes, I’d learn by doing and start working with your friend, rather than spend the money on a certificate of questionable value.
That said, a background in education is a great way to get into course development or technical training, both of which have similarities to technical writing. Those fields require little formal education, but demand the ability to learn new concepts quickly. There are positions out there that are strictly training documentation, which you might enjoy, and there are others that are a blend of writing and delivering the content. Also, almost any field requires training, which may broaden your career choices beyond documentation for e-learning systems.
Amy, I think you’re better off studying research and interview techniques. Tools Training is never wasted, but nor is it practical to expect to achieve proficiency in every tool out there. There are just so many – FrameMaker, AuthorIT, Robohelp, Documentum, Word, Acrobat, Captivate, Flash, etc, etc, etc.
Your time and money is better spent, IMHO, on technology education or, as you suggested, instructional systems training. Your biggest asset as a technical writer is the ability to understand the complexity of the subject matter you’re documenting AND simplify it for mass consumption.
Writing itself is important – you should know nouns from verbs, passive voice from active… but it’s not THE most important skill. I hear this constantly. “I can write just as well as you can.” Maybe, maybe not. Our work is more than putting words to paper or just prettying up grammar and punctuation. Our work begins with users – the target audience. What do they need? We have to push to solve their problems. Marketing wants to impress them with lots of flowery buzz words. Development wants to dazzle them with cool technology. Meanwhile, the poor end user just wants to do his job.
We have to know what that job requires. We also have to know how the product we’re documenting fits into that job. Software is a tool, so answer not “What can this tool do?” but “How do I use this tool to perform my work?” The first question is answered by Marketing’s sales pitch and Development’s geek wizardry but the second question requires a good technical writer to translate the features and technical mumbo jumbo into simple, easy-to-apply instructions that are focused on task performance.
To do this, tech writers need to understand what developers are talking about when they lapse into “geek speak.” It’s hard to get this knowledge from a certificate or a workshop. We also need good interview skills to get those experts to think like a user instead of like a programmer, skills like a good investigative reporter’s.
I have degrees in computer science and MIS. Those are what helped me more than my writing skills. I learned Word, FrameMaker, Captivate, AuthorIt, Acrobat, etc. on the job. My technical background makes it easy for me to learn new tools because I already have the foundation to build upon.
Does this make sense? Good luck to you.
My bias is showing here, because I teach in a Tech Comm certificate program at Duke University. But the best programs emphasize career skills and not tools.
Our program provides a sampling of representative tools, with the idea that students who’re exposed to these tools can quickly pick up many of the other tools. But about 90% of our class time is devoted to teaching students how to write, edit, design, and manage tech comm projects. At the end of the course, each student gains hands-on experience (as well as a portfolio) by designing and developing a final project.
As Tom has said, you should be wary of programs that emphasize things like how to create drop-down menus in Dreamweaver. You can pick up that kind of knowledge elsewhere. Look for programs that teach skills you can apply throughout an entire career.
My two cents worth:
If you’ve been teaching for ten years, you already have the knowledge and transferable skills needed to break into technical writing. You know how to analyze documentation written in a number of different “voices” and parse out the important information. You understand how to interact with people at different levels within an organization (the classroom has a hierarchy just like the business world.) And you know how to write.
Here is the rub: You have no direct technical writing experience. My advice would be to ask around the computer science department at your university to see if any of the professors have consulting businesses on the side for which they need some tech writing done. Ask around in various departments, especially with professors who are non-native English speakers to see if they have papers that are up for publication that they could use some editing assistance with. Volunteer to tutor writing and focus on business writing. Use the connections that you already have in the educational world to build enough experience to show that you have the knowledge and drive to learn whatever the employer needs you to learn, show that you can learn it quickly, and show that you have skills beyond just being able to edit and format.
All of this said, if I were in your position, I would stick with the teaching. I taught at university for four years and loved it. I’d still be there if it weren’t for some circumstances that arose involving not getting into a PhD program, looming student loan debt, and a really lucky break with a high-paying tech writing job on a short term implementation project.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do. Remember that the moral of everyone’s posts so far is really that it is practical application of your skills that counts. Find a way to get that and you’ll be set. (My MA is in creative writing and my thesis was a collection of poems… If I can do it, anyone can…)
If you truly love technical writing and truly want to do it, a certificate program can help. In my past as a doc manager, I have been happy with the people I’ve hired from technical writing certificate programs, particularly those from a program (no longer in existence) that trained people specifically for software technical writing. I’ve even been on the board of such a program back in the day. However, that was then and this is now as they say.
If I were you, I’d scope out what the market is like for tech writers in your geographic area and your technical area. For example, pharmaceutical companies are looking for different experience from telecom companies and there are more openings for pharma than for telecom within 100 mile radius of my house.
I think the geography/technical area thing partly explains what happened when someone recently posed this same question on a tech writers’ listserv that I follow. The responses amounted to “don’t bother going into technical communication” and “if you must transition to a new career, get a certificate in User Experience, not technical writing.” I was surprised at the negativity of the responses. The negativity was not about certificate programs per se but about getting into tech writing at all. People were reacting to their own experiences of having a hard time finding jobs in the field. Recruiters were responding with stories of having more openings for UX people than for tech writers. Both the writers and the recruiters who were saying this are mostly located in northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Had the question been asked on a listserv in Silicon Valley or Bangalore, the responses would have been different.
Do what you love and look before you leap.
Having some sort of technical writing qualification can help to land an entry level job because it signals to the employer that:
- you know what technical writing is
- you actually want to be a technical writer.
Plenty of applicants for an entry level tech writing position will not have those attributes.
Worked for me.
J
I am a graduate of a Tech Comm certificate course and I am also a part-time instructor in the Tech Comm program.
While there is a tool-based element to the course I teach (students come out of my course with a strong knowledge of how to use RoboHelp) I don’t make it the primary focus. I want students to learn skills that will help them in the industry: audience and task analysis, usability, project management, etc. A lot of students in my class really appreciate that, but there are always a handful that ‘just want to learn RoboHelp’.
We’ve been really interested in what’s been going on in this thread about certificates. The question Amy asked, regarding the value of certificates, is one we get all the time, so we’d like to put our two cents worth into the ring. Before you read on, here’s our disclaimer: we’re academics and we both teach in a program that offers a Graduate Certificate in Technical Communication.
A certificate in technical communication is a valuable credential particularly for anyone considering change in careers or a chance to upgrade skills after a number of years away from school. Now, you may think, “Hey, these people are faculty in an academic program…of course they’re going to say that!” However, just bear with us for a minute. We’ve got to add a few details.
Certificates are the bridge between your existing academic and professional experience to the field of technical communication or a way to add to your base of knowledge. They’re important, especially if you haven’t had any formal training in technical or professional communication. However, you need to consider that not all certificates are the same. Many certificates focus on the basics of tools and yes, in some of those programs you’ll be making a drop-down menu in Dreamweaver. What you need to think about is this: Do you want a non-credit certificate, an undergraduate-credit certificate, or a graduate-credit certificate? What do you want the next line in your resume to say about you and the value you bring to projects and organizations?
You’ve already got a degree but you don’t have any direct experience in technical communication? You’re actually a perfect candidate for a graduate tech comm certificate. So, let’s answer the question about what a grad-level certificate will give you.
First off, it introduces you to the principles of technical communication in both its verbal (written) and visual (graphics) forms. You’ll notice we didn’t say “tools” here? It’s not that a grad certificate doesn’t involve some aspect of tools; it does. However, what’s significant is the whole idea of both verbal and visual communication. As a basic competency in 2011, a grad certificate can give you the skills to communicate effectively in both domains. Depending on what you’re seeking, you can find a grad certificate that strengthens your writing and editing credentials or one that goes beyond writing to communicating visually as well as verbally and in multiple media.
Second, some grad certificates offer flexibility to let you select an area of interest where you can focus your elective course choices. From your post, it sounds like you want to move into instructional design and development. I know we may sound biased here because of who we are, but you’re going to need academic credentials in this area if you really want to leverage your options. E-learning is everywhere and M-learning is about to explode. Being an effective communicator in this area is about theory AND practice. You need both and that’s what a graduate certificate can give you. In your case, you will want to look for grad certificates that have e-learning courses within them.
Amy, you will then need to evaluate these programs carefully. Take your time and look at what’s out there. The STC Academic Database (www.stc.org) or the ATTW Programs Database (www.attw.org) will show you all of the online options, for instance, for grad certificates. Our program is one of these.
Another consideration is the quality of the faculty. They should have either relevant work experience or the appropriate academic credentials, or both. Larry Kunz, one of the posters to this thread, is a great example of someone with a strong background and a wealth of experience in technical communication.
What if it turns out that you really like the coursework in the grad certificate and want to continue for the MS degree? You should at least consider which programs give you the option to apply the coursework from the grad certificate for a master’s degree. Again, you can check the listings on the STC or ATTW sites for programs and contacts.
What it finally comes down to is evaluating what’s out there and thinking about what will best meet your needs in terms of credentials, goals, time, and money.
Carol Barnum and Laura Palmer
SPSU – Information Design & Communication Program
I have a similar background to Amy — MA in English with secondary-level teaching experience.
I was not marketable with those skills, so I went through a 9-month certificate program at the University of Washington.
Two of the six instructors worked at the same Fortune 50 company, and one of them hired me.
The immense value of the program was networking and basically auditioning for the instructors. Other classmates found jobs through other instructors or classmate referrals.
Find out who the teachers are and what the job-placement record is. The most valuable aspect is not necessarily *what* you learn but *who* you get to know.
Amy,
A lot of points I had in mind have already been addressed by the others, so I’ll not repeat those. One point I’d really like to stress is for you to check if you have the aptitude for becoming a Technical Writer.
I’ve seen many people with your background (M.A. in English, and some teaching experience) and ones with completely different backgrounds (Nursing!!!) who enter the Technical Writing field because it’s lucrative and considered an easy option. It may be lucrative but it certainly isn’t easy (having had a tough time teaching some kids in my family, I may probably relent that it is certainly easier than teaching
). What a lot of them fail to take into account is their natural aptitude for this profession.
One good way to see if you might do well is to take an aptitude test. If it turns out that you have an aptitude for this field, do go ahead with seriously thinking about this industry.
Another important way to gauge yourself is to do a test run.
A good way to do this (it helped me when I was new) is to study how documentation is written for some popular software applications, like MS Word. Also do a lot of research over the internet for advice on how to start writing user manuals.
After you have done enough research and feel sufficiently confident, take up a simple software application – maybe MS Paint, or Notepad. Maybe even your mobile phone. Write a user manual for this app from scratch. Take a break, then edit the documentation.
After you feel that you have done a good job to the best of your ability, and only after you have this feeling, you can open the *actual* user manual of the software application that you just documented. Compare the original document with your trial run and see if you have done a good job. You may also show it to a senior Technical Writer for a review. If it turns out that with no experience and good research, you have done a reasonably good job, I believe you will be a good Technical Writer.
Maybe after this check, you can start reviewing certificates.
Just keep in mind that tools are just that – tools. They are just a means to an end. They will never replace your documentation skills. Having said that, prospective employers will look for some tools experience, and you will need to know some important tools before the recruiters start calling you. (A lot of them search resume databases with the tool names as search keywords.)
You can download the trial versions of some of these tools to get some practice, but they don’t always work very well. A lot of these tools are very expensive, so buying them is not an option. So I suggest you get some open source documentation tools that have similar features to these proprietary, popular tools for ‘practice’. Sometimes employers will consider these parallel tools expertise on par with the actual tools expertise.
Enough for now. All the best with making a sound decision.
If you decide to become a Technical Writer, do tell us what exactly helped you.
Reg,
VS
Nursing!!! With exclamation marks even.
I would think a nurse would make as good a technical writer as any technician in the IT field. They just need to write for the correct industry.
Nursing is all about applying critical thinking. Isn’t critical thinking a major component in the writing process?
As for having an aptitude, if you want to find that out you have to write. You’ll quickly find out if it is what you want to do.
Overall, good post.
Any background can theoretically do well. I am open to the idea that nursing brings certain strengths to technical writing. Thanks for your comment.
All my skills come from old school, “Doing” I am trying to figure out how to become a Technical Writer or more of a Policies and Procedures person. I don’t have my degree although if you saw my resume I have been commissioned to do CC&R’s and Policies and Procedures from banks. I try to think of my end user when putting them together as to make their job doable when they set down for the first time. I love the feeling of sitting with someone watching what they are doing and mimicking it on paper. It’s the OCD in my lol
I want to do this for a living but only have a few examples in my portfolio. Any advice on what to do would be appreciated. I am just excited to type away and make someone’s job just a bit easier.
Thank you,
Danielle
Hello there,
So I read all of the above posts. However, am still not sure as to how should I take things further. I’m a graduate(B.E equivalent to B.S) in IT and have a total of 4 yrs of industry experience, with close to an year in technical writing. I also did a short term course which taught me the basics of technical writing. On the current job, I feel am not learning much.
Hence am thinking of pursuing a Masters or a Certificate course in Technical writing, preferably outside India, where am currently based. Could you please let me know if this makes sense, cuz obviously I will have to get a loan in case I decide on following this track.
So is a degree needed at all? If yes should it be a Masters or a Certificate program?
Thank You!
I’ve been a technical writer for more than 20 years. Like many in my generation, I “fell” into technical writing by accident. My degree was in English with a music minor. I taught in public schools for a few years before I became a newspaper reporter and magazine editor. I got my first technical writing job when I started freelancing. At the time, I didn’t even know what a technical writer was and had never heard of the job.
The point here is that I have had a very successful career without a certificate or even a degree in technical writing. Of course, when I was getting started, there weren’t any certificate programs and only a handful of technical writing college degrees.
These days, I spend most of my time teaching technical writing courses through colleges and universities around the world. I’ve seen an explosion of technical writing certification programs over the past several years. I’ve even been asked to teach some of them.
I’ve refused to do so, however, because frankly, I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with the courses I’ve been offered because they are so irrelevant and poorly organized.
The bottomline is that there are many really good technical writing certificate programs, but there also are a lot of really awful ones, so beware. I agree that getting a certificate can help your job prospects — but only if it is from a reputable, respected organization.
When you’re looking for courses, don’t forget that education is big business, and there are unscrupulous companies offering classes just as there are unscrupulous companies in any industry. Be sure to check the credentials of the instructors to be sure that they either have experience or education in technical writing. People who have worked solely for newspapers, for example, won’t have the knowledge of the environment that technical writers work in.
When you’re considering a program, be sure to check everything. Be sure you understand what the refund policy is if you decide the program isn’t for you. Be careful about companies that seem to have special arrangements with consumer finance companies (the ones that charge the highest interest) and promise to get you financing to take their courses. This often is a huge red flag because even if the program isn’t what you think it was going to be, you’ll still be on the hook for the loan you took out to pay for it.
I hope this helps!
This thread has been incredible. I scoured the internet for advice concerning technical writing certificates, but I couldn’t find anything truly helpful until I stumbled upon this site. Along with Tom (and Amy for posting the original question), thanks especially to Patty Blount for your amazing reply. Great advice from Janet Egan and Laura Palmer, as well. Thanks again!
Hi,
I loved this post. I was thinking of doing some certifications, but after reading this post.. I have a lot more clarity on what I should be looking for.
I was thinking of doing an online course from an institute called twb.edu.in (The writers block) in Bangalore India. They claim to have been the best institute and their students have got jobs globally. In fact, they said they are working with Airbus etc. Have you heard of this institute..? or the company?