Tomorrow I’m driving up to BYU Idaho to give a presentation titled “Technical Communication Careers: Getting Started and Finding Your Niche.” It’s part of their annual Pre-Professional Writing Conference for English and professional writing students. I like to go because I have an old colleague up there who teaches English (we spent 2 years in Egypt teaching at The American University in Cairo), and it’s … more »

Students at Missouri State University asked me some questions about technical writing as a career. To provide a balance of opinion and perspective, I opened up the questions to my Twitter followers and asked them to respond as well. What is your job title? Eileen Potter: Senior Product Content Specialist (in June I changed positions within my company, previous title was Senior Technical Writer) Richard … more »

How to break into technical writing is one of the most common questions readers ask. (If you wrote a book entirely on this subject, I’m sure you’d sell regular copies.) Recently a journalist interviewed me and others (Jack Molisani, Mike Hughes, and Andrea Ames) on this topic. He published his article, called Use Your IT Experience to Move into Technical Writing, in DICE. I have only … more »

[Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Length: 40 min. Last week I gave a presentation to BYU Idaho students entitled 7 Steps to Getting a Job in Technical Writing. This is a recording of my presentation. You may remember a lengthy post I wrote on this same subject, 7 steps to getting a job in technical writing, as well. Although getting a … more »

If you’re a college student looking to become a technical writer after you graduate, you face a formidable challenge: you can’t get a job without experience, and you can’t get experience without a job. Especially in a competitive job market, getting a job as a technical writer directly after you graduate — without a foundation of previous jobs, experience with a handful of tools, and … more »