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I'm a technical writer at Fastly and a published author with No Starch Press. I've worked full time as a technical writer since 2006. It's a great career and I

by mcone 11y ago

I'm a technical writer at Fastly and a published author with No Starch Press. I've worked full time as a technical writer since 2006. It's a great career and I highly recommend it. If you have a technical background and you've coauthored a book, you already have what it takes to find full time work as a technical writer. There are really two ways into this field. You start with a background in English or professional writing and learn the technology, or you can start with a computer science degree or something similar and learn how to write. It sounds like you've done the latter. The pay is good if you work for a company full time. Many technical writing jobs these days are remote. (All of the tech writers that work for Fastly and GitHub are remote, for example.) You could probably do freelance work, but I've never been able to make that work. Most companies don't outsource their documentation and I'm not entirely sure why, although I suspect it has something to do with them wanting to build long term relationships with the individual(s) documenting their products. You will need to do some networking. You may want to consider attending Write the Docs (http://www.writethedocs.org/ http://www.writethedocs.org/), a conference for technical writers. Depending on where you live, you might also be able to find an active STC group. Or just start applying for jobs. :) Really good technical writers are hard to come by, so if you know technology and you can write, you'll probably have the job offers flooding your inbox. This recent posting at DataDog is a good example of something you will want to keep a lookout for: https://www.datadoghq.com/careers/detail/?gh_jid=169167 https://www.datadoghq.com/careers/detail/?gh_jid=169167 Hit me up if you have questions.

danso 11y ago
If I can ask...what do you make as a technical writer relative to what you could be making if you were an average person doing the actual technical job, e.g. what is the work and wage like to write about JavaScript as opposed to being a front-end developer at the average tech company?
- wallflower 11y ago
  The ratio, from knowing the approximate range of what my technical writer friends make, is probably around 50-75% (depending on experience). However, technical writers who write books can share in an income stream, an advantage in the long term.
- mcone 11y ago
  I think wallflower is right: Technical writers generally get paid less than what developers make. But every company is different. At Compose.io, for example, I think it could be more of a blended position, which is to say that you could be writing documentation and contributing to the codebase [1]. There may not be much of a pay gap at companies like that. There are also other benefits. Technical writing positions are generally extremely low stress jobs where you have ample time to finish your work, learn new technologies, etc. And as I mentioned before, many of these positions are remote, so you have the opportunity to live in places with low costs of living. [1] https://compose.io/jobs/#technical-content-creator https://compose.io/jobs/#technical-content-creator
mtrn 11y ago
Thanks for your insight and encouragement. I actually studied compsci and creative writing, so I have a background in both. I am still working as a software developer / "data engineer" by day, and I am starting to sketch out a small book by night.
p8952 11y ago
>You start with a background in English or professional writing and learn the technology, or you can start with a computer science degree or something similar and learn how to write. Could you please recommend some good resources for learning to write, in the context of technical writing or more generally?
- mcone 11y ago
  Different people will give you different answers, but I always advise people to do three things: study writing samples, find mentors and nurture relationships with them, and practice writing on your own. The first item is really easy. Just go out and find companies that have documentation that you like. You'll probably find you like the way some technology companies write docs -- I personally like the documentation provided by Heroku and Apple -- but you can find good documentation in other places too. Study these docs! Read them again and again. Try to to soak it up like a sponge. After a while you'll start noticing patterns in how they use language and how they organize the information. Just as important, of course, is studying documentation that you don't like. Try to figure out why it doesn't work and then avoid making those mistakes in your own documentation. Finding mentors is a little more difficult. I cold emailed several authors back when I was started out and almost all of them responded and provided a lot of help. Owen Linzmayer, an author at No Starch Press, responded with this advice: "The most important thing to remember about technical writing is that the goal is not necessarily to be understood, but rather to avoid misunderstanding. As such, consistency and clarity are paramount, and you should never assume your reader has the knowledge you possess. I try to make sure to tell readers not only how to do something, but why. That way they are not just following instructions and learning by rote, but rather, they're building their understanding of the system you're explaining, and perhaps can devise solutions to problems you haven't covered." I also emailed author Robin Williams, and she invited me out to lunch. She was kind enough to have me do some ghost writing with her on a book at Peachpit Press. You need these kind of breaks to learn the ropes and get into a position where you can author books and work in the industry full time. Obviously practice is really important. The best thing to do is probably create or contribute to some kind of blog or open source guide about something you know. There are plenty of them out there. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python (http://docs.python-guide.org/ http://docs.python-guide.org/) comes to mind. Keep working at it. It's frustrating and difficult work, but you'll get better over time. In many ways learning to write good technical documentation is just as difficult as learning to code. Another thing you'll want to do is find a good style guide. Microsoft has one, as does Apple. Apple's is available for free: https://help.apple.com/asg/mac/2013/ASG_2013.pdf https://help.apple.com/asg/mac/2013/ASG_2013.pdf

by mcone 11y ago

danso 11y ago

If I can ask...what do you make as a technical writer relative to what you could be making if you were an average person doing the actual technical job, e.g. what is the work and wage like to write about JavaScript as opposed to being a front-end developer at the average tech company?

wallflower 11y ago
The ratio, from knowing the approximate range of what my technical writer friends make, is probably around 50-75% (depending on experience). However, technical writers who write books can share in an income stream, an advantage in the long term.
mcone 11y ago
I think wallflower is right: Technical writers generally get paid less than what developers make. But every company is different. At Compose.io, for example, I think it could be more of a blended position, which is to say that you could be writing documentation and contributing to the codebase [1]. There may not be much of a pay gap at companies like that. There are also other benefits. Technical writing positions are generally extremely low stress jobs where you have ample time to finish your work, learn new technologies, etc. And as I mentioned before, many of these positions are remote, so you have the opportunity to live in places with low costs of living. [1] https://compose.io/jobs/#technical-content-creator https://compose.io/jobs/#technical-content-creator

mtrn 11y ago

Thanks for your insight and encouragement. I actually studied compsci and creative writing, so I have a background in both. I am still working as a software developer / "data engineer" by day, and I am starting to sketch out a small book by night.

p8952 11y ago

>You start with a background in English or professional writing and learn the technology, or you can start with a computer science degree or something similar and learn how to write. Could you please recommend some good resources for learning to write, in the context of technical writing or more generally?

mcone 11y ago
Different people will give you different answers, but I always advise people to do three things: study writing samples, find mentors and nurture relationships with them, and practice writing on your own. The first item is really easy. Just go out and find companies that have documentation that you like. You'll probably find you like the way some technology companies write docs -- I personally like the documentation provided by Heroku and Apple -- but you can find good documentation in other places too. Study these docs! Read them again and again. Try to to soak it up like a sponge. After a while you'll start noticing patterns in how they use language and how they organize the information. Just as important, of course, is studying documentation that you don't like. Try to figure out why it doesn't work and then avoid making those mistakes in your own documentation. Finding mentors is a little more difficult. I cold emailed several authors back when I was started out and almost all of them responded and provided a lot of help. Owen Linzmayer, an author at No Starch Press, responded with this advice: "The most important thing to remember about technical writing is that the goal is not necessarily to be understood, but rather to avoid misunderstanding. As such, consistency and clarity are paramount, and you should never assume your reader has the knowledge you possess. I try to make sure to tell readers not only how to do something, but why. That way they are not just following instructions and learning by rote, but rather, they're building their understanding of the system you're explaining, and perhaps can devise solutions to problems you haven't covered." I also emailed author Robin Williams, and she invited me out to lunch. She was kind enough to have me do some ghost writing with her on a book at Peachpit Press. You need these kind of breaks to learn the ropes and get into a position where you can author books and work in the industry full time. Obviously practice is really important. The best thing to do is probably create or contribute to some kind of blog or open source guide about something you know. There are plenty of them out there. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python (http://docs.python-guide.org/ http://docs.python-guide.org/) comes to mind. Keep working at it. It's frustrating and difficult work, but you'll get better over time. In many ways learning to write good technical documentation is just as difficult as learning to code. Another thing you'll want to do is find a good style guide. Microsoft has one, as does Apple. Apple's is available for free: https://help.apple.com/asg/mac/2013/ASG_2013.pdf https://help.apple.com/asg/mac/2013/ASG_2013.pdf