RE: Internships (was: Breaking into the tech writing job market)

["Mike Schmidt" <mschmidt -at- weathercentral -dot- tv>]

By "started out," my answer is: I went to school for something else and
did that for a while.

- But then I decided I wanted to write instructions and went after it.
So it was a conscious decision to go after a tech writing job.

- I started out as a teacher. Quit that and moved, and decided to be a
tech writer. 
   - I later pursued some training - but I had a very good mentor at the
start. Not an internship, but it was a low-paying position at first.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mschmidt=weathercentral -dot- tv -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Jones, Donna
Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 1:02 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Internships (was: Breaking into the tech writing job market)

Bonnie Granat wrote:
> > How does one get that first tech writing job without the experience?
> 
> Usually through an internship.


I don't know that I would say "usually." I know a lot of tech writers in
the Chicago area and in Michigan, and I don't think that a single one of
them was ever an intern as a writer. I could be wrong. Maybe the subject
just never came up with someone who had done it. I didn't think that
internships were that common outside of engineering.

I think this calls for an informal poll: 

- How many of you who actually started out wanting to be a tech writer
began as a tech writing intern?

- How many of you who started out as something else were interns?

I fall into the first category. My degree is in scientific and technical
communication, so I planned to be a technical writer, but I began my
career by working as a typesetter back in the days when few people had
PCs. After about a year of that, I was hired as an assistant editor
because I knew PageMaker on the Mac, which the company had just moved
to. I spent 3 years there building up things for my portfolio before I
finally landed a job with the title "Technical Writer."


I don't think there is a "usual" way to get a job as a tech writer. You
do what you can to get your foot in a door and work hard once you get
there to prove yourself. You may start out as a writer or as something
else.


Donna
 
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