Technical Writers

At the Mendota Heights office, I had my own cubicle in an office I shared with another coworker. My duties often varied in pace and projects sometimes layered on top of other projects. It was very important to be able to prioritize your tasks and allow yourself to move on to another task while wa...

To prepare for the interview, I made sure to read over the job description very carefully. I made a note of the type of people I would be working with (business analysts and IT programmers). This helped me to anticipate some interview questions like "have you ever worked with a CRM" or "what is y...

It's busy, but every day is something new. They gave me a lot of freedom in what projects I was interested in and how I wanted to go about making solutions to different problems. The days mostly consisted to 50% meeting with people to figure out what to write, 40% actual writing and 10% routine m...

You start with a cup of coffee and a an Engineering Change Request (ECR) about a new service document or manual for one of the current machines that Park Industries build. You start by learning about the procedure you will be writing about. When you have enough information about your service docu...

It's a 9-5, 5 days a week internship, so you'll get a taste of what office life is like. Work includes meeting with subject matter experts to discuss Genworth insurance procedures before you write them. They have software and templates where you then write standard operating procedures for Genwor...

Check your email! Our office usually performs phone interviews, so a very important part of the process is making sure the applicant follows the directions in the email and calls our office for their interview. This is an easy test that shows us whether an applicant is serious about applying wi...

I try to assign projects that coincide with an individual intern's skills and interests in order to help them get the most out of their experience, so days could look different for different interns. Usually, an intern will arrive in-office to begin their shift, and work at their computer station...

I was fortunate enough to study at a university that offered a professional writing program, so my major really helped prepare me for my job as a technical writer. Research, communication, and strong writing skills are a must, of course, but I use my time management, multi-tasking, and organizati...

Relatively flexible hours, allowed 1 remote day a week at least, as many sick days off as needed (within reason), a nice, relaxed workplace where deadlines won't kill anyone. As work goes, I would be editing and creating tutorial videos, writing in XML or an authoring tool to create instructions ...

Extremely well. My Media Studies and Journalism Major did a great deal as well. But from my written comm major, I used instructional design and organization skills, consulting and debate skills (for when I needed to argue my side of things and talk with others around the company), and a wide vari...

Work-life balance is always considered there. They have an in-house masseuse, yoga most mornings, exercise classes in the early evening, a company-wide activity almost every month - the list goes on. Once again, I was able to work remote once a week as well, and could have done more if I needed.

You need to be thoughtful. Put your ideas forth and don't be a wimp, as you'll receive lots of tough feedback, challenge to your ideas, and many opportunities to do as you see fit. This is not a workplace for sheep, lazy folk, or over-confident people. It also helps to know what you're doing and ...

To succeed at Salesforce as a technical writer, you'll need a driven work ethic, strong writing skills, and the ability and willingness to learn on the job. I came in with almost no technical knowledge about the profession, and barely even knew what it meant to be a Technical Writer, but that did...

While in college, I found that English is my greatest strength. But I was not interested in education nor in journalism or some of the more stereotypical career fields in writing. Technical writing prioritizes structured but still user-friendly content. The field currently is full of contract opp...

My concentration in Philosophy, within Cognitive Science, helped me become a better thinker, and consequently, a better writer; having a strong background in writing is supremely beneficial. However, my previous technical knowledge has also been of help.

Epic uses behavioral questions in interviews, so research that interview style ahead of time and prepare salient examples of your past experience, be it professional or academic. If this is your first job out of school, remember that your examples don't need to come from a professional setting, a...

After completing training (2-6 months), you spend most of your time working on documentation projects. Some writers focus on updating existing documentation and spend their time working with the implementation team, while other writers focus on creating documentation for new releases and spend th...

Be honest and be calm. Come up with a few different scenarios that you can use as examples of when you worked with a group or team, how you took leadership, what you did when there was a disagreement, what you did when you made a mistake, etc. For a tech writing position be prepared to provide a ...

A typical day consists of morning program meetings, where program teams meet to go over individual updates and hash out any problems. Here, not only do you contribute your own update, you also are listening to see if there's anything that might affect your own work.The rest of the day consists of...

I suggest doing some some research ahead of time about Raytheon, technical writing, and the field. Come prepared, but most importantly, be yourself. When our group interviews candidates, we have already looked at the resume and like what we see. At the interview, we mainly want to see if your per...

Be prepared to discuss your writing experience and how you approach the writing process. Think about how you work with other people, particularly those from whom you need to get information, and how you would handle it if you were having difficulty getting someone to respond to requests for infor...

First, review the job description for the position, which should include a list of requirements or qualifications for the position, understanding that some items in the list may be more or less essential than others (or even "nice to have" extras).Second, create a table or bullet list comparing t...

A typical day may include one or more of any of the following activities: meeting with (or exchanging messages with) co-workers requesting new documents or changes to existing documents (or to drafts of new documents) meeting with (or exchanging messages with) managers or other co-workers request...

To prepare for an interview with Ingenico, I would make sure I understand some of the latest trends happening in the payment processing industry. I'd make sure to at least get an overview of PCI DSS guidelines. Additionally, make sure you understand what API is and how it may be used by developer...

Have samples or a portfolio prepared. My position was an internship only, so the thinking behind it was that I would walk away from this temporary position with technical writing samples for a future portfolio. There are a lot of people vying for these writing and editing jobs, so having a portfo...

I'm not sure how normal my experience was. It was an eight-week internship, and MetroHealth had never had a technical writer intern before, so it was uncharted territory for everyone involved.There were a few roadblocks during my stay. My manager was hoping to have me work on transitioning digita...

Studying Creative Writing—and English, in general—allowed me to develop and utilize skills instrumental to fulfilling the duties of a technical writer. Technical writing is a lot like translating. It's writing, yes, but it doesn't necessarily scratch that creative itch. But how you take that tech...

English is a liberal arts major and it is an excellent major for technical writing. English majors write well and know the Chicago Manual of Style rules. They are good with grammar. All these things are needed as a tech writer. English majors usually relate to a variety of people due to their bro...

To succeed at Salesforce as a technical writer, you'll need a driven work ethic, strong writing skills, and the ability and willingness to learn on the job. I came in with almost no technical knowledge about the profession, and barely even knew what it meant to be a Technical Writer, but that did...

While in college, I found that English is my greatest strength. But I was not interested in education nor in journalism or some of the more stereotypical career fields in writing. Technical writing prioritizes structured but still user-friendly content. The field currently is full of contract opp...

I was an English major at U of D and was uncertain of what to do with my life. Back then, we had very little career guidance. I do not even know if U of D had a career center in the 1970s. If they did, they did not advertise it very well. I graduated from Delaware and went to Paris to work as an...

Ability to learn quickly; flexibility and adaptability; being comfortable asking questions, even when they feel silly; clear, concise writing; and, if applicable, interest or knowledge in healthcare.

After completing training (2-6 months), you spend most of your time working on documentation projects. Some writers focus on updating existing documentation and spend their time working with the implementation team, while other writers focus on creating documentation for new releases and spend th...

Lots of self discipline, autonomy and initiative. Self advocacy and taking chances, juggling, as well as the reward of flexibility and adaptability.

I worked primarily on my own and used Slack to communicate with my boss and ask any questions that came up. I was doing documentation of how to use Drupal, their content management system. This included taking screenshots and writing up instructions of tasks I was performing using Drupal. I also ...

I spent some time writing out all of my responses to standard interview questions (strengths, weaknesses, about me introduction). I also focused a lot on my experiences explaining science to a non-science audience, giving examples of when I accomplished this. I was a TA for a non-major biology cl...

A Sr. Proposal Writer at Prudential experiences peaks and valleys with a high volume of proposals in the summer and low volume in the winter. It requires a lot of reading, writing, proofreading and teamwork. Hours are a little rigid, with a half lunch, but OT is expected. There is clear hierarchy...

As in most corporate jobs, you do get vacation time, sick time, and paid disability. There is also flex-time and potential to work from home. However, there is also the expected OT during the high volume season.