entry-level positions

[Megan Elizabeth Mc Macken <S1057984 -at- CEDARNET -dot- CEDARVILLE -dot- EDU>]

Greetings!  I'm a college senior who will soon begin my quest for The
Perfect First Technical Writing Job (tm).  So far I have only seen
one entry-level job advertised, and that was in an online job
database.  Everyone else is asking for two to five years of
experience, often with software we don't run on our network.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a tech writing internship this
summer like several of my classmates did.  My internship has amounted
to designing and creating a home page for our student chapter of the
STC and a home page for my college's English department.  I wouldn't
say that that has been a very practical or realistic experience, but
it's been fun and I've learned a lot of HTML.

So, I'll graduate with no writing experience beyond what I've gotten
from class assignments.  What did the rest of you do when you found
yourselves in this position after finishing a technical writing
program of some sort?  Did you end up standing at a copy machine day
after day, or did some kind soul hire you and help you get into the
technical writing groove by trusting you with real writing
assignments?  What kinds of entry-level responsibilities did you end
up with?

--Megan McMacken

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Megan E. McMacken, technical writer | http://soncrest.giant.net/megan

"The more the words, the less the mean, and how does that profit
anyone?"  --Ecclesiastes 6:11