Training for the Future

Through my time as student in Tech Writing program and as intern under the Tech Writing director I have learned much more about tech writing than I ever planned. The various professors I have had for my tech writing classes all shared or discussed what tech writing can be like in a job setting. While none of them necessarily gave students a scenario to teach the various nuances of holding a job, especially one in tech writing, like Sherry Southard suggests. They still teach us the technical aspect of tech writing, but the sharing of experience as a professional helps to bring in the less concrete skills that are hard to explicitly teach. The internship experience has really helped to branch out into the “communication” side of technical communication as Johndan Johnson calls the field. The communication side is the less concrete side of the job, but doing the research and reading for this blog has helped to understand professional life.

One job that I found that fits my skills is as a Technical Writer at RPC which is in the financial industry. They are looking for someone that can research, interview, recommend changes, write instructions, maintain writing style, peer edit, document work history, and follow through on projects. My particular internship has set me up well for something like this because I have been able to do this in some form. Creating a game has called for researching various technical writing jobs, recommending changes in game mechanics based in though out reasons, peer edit the work of my co-intern, and work on this project independently. A good way to prepare for this kind of job would to look into journals/manuals in the relevant industry and become somewhat familiar with the conventions. A publication from this list would be good place to start. 

Another job that I found is a Technical Writer at Continuum. They are looking for someone to test new software and creating documentation for that software. This person will also test other tech writer’s work, working with the creators, and making changes. This is of interest to me because it deals somewhat with web programming languages, which is my main field of study. I have also previously worked on a documentation project so I have some experience working with software and testing out the document with testers. A good place to learn web languages is codecademy.com It is a free resource that has basic and advanced tutorials and updates their content on occasion. As for testing various works, a good and fun way to do this is playtesting games. I have been given the opportunity to create and playtest games as an intern and student.

A third job I found is a Technical Writer at Corptax which deals with business process and automation solutions for corporate tax. Skills for this position include Adobe Creative Suite, HTML/XML, editing, single source authoring tool, peer reviewing, and knowledge sharing. Since I am a Graphics Communications major I am familiar with Adobe Creative Suite and HTML. My knowledge of how Content Management systems work would prepare me well for single source authoring methods. As a graphics student I have had the opportunity to ask fellow students about my work and also be able to share new knowledge with them. To keep up with changing technologies I would go to lydna.com for Adobe software and codecademy.com for web programming, but lynda.com also has good resources for the web.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age."

Soplinsky, Emily. "Survival Skills for Communicators within Organizations."

Southard, Sherry. "Interacting Successfully in Corporate Culture."