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I'm a 28-year-old English graduate who is happily employed as a FT technical
writer for a software development company. I have never worked as a software
developer, but have trivial experience in a couple of programming languages
(enough that I understand what the engineers are talking about, most of the
time).
This is my second gig since graduation; I left the first one voluntarily
because this one was a much better offer.
While my degree is a straight English BA degree, I think the reason I've
been picked up for the two jobs I've worked at was due in part to my
technical writing experience in college (worked as a TW for the university's
office of IT, as well as another department) in addition to some well-placed
technology classes (took a VB.net programming class and an XML class).
So, I suppose I'm fit the category you are asking about. I'm young (I would
guess most of you would put me in the "young" category), and I picked
technical writing as a career path before I graduated from college. (It
wasn't my first choice in college, but who didn't experience a direction
shift in college?)
-Paul Pehrson
Midvale, UT
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