Career Opportunities in Technical Writing

Technical writing or Technical communication is all about communicating an idea to particular users in an easily understandable way. The job of a technical writer is to gather complete information, analyze the subject matter and audience sensibilities, and then conceptualize, design and create documents for varied purposes and target audience.

Who is a Technical Writer

A technical writer is a professional who analyzes a product and understands its specifications, to prepare documents for the particular users. He specializes in writing technical content for non-technical users. He thinks in users’ perspectives, converting complex technical contents into clear and concise documents.

Need For Technical Writers

Nowadays technical writing has become an essential part of product development and marketing. Numerous products are hitting the market as a esult of industrial growth. A product can be successful in the market only when it is properly documented. Technical writers prepare these documents. Hence, the technical writers play a major role in the success of any product.

Ok, Let me explain you with an example, assume that you are using a washing machine and got stuck in some task; your immediate duty is to find a way out. Now you can refer a user manual or can contact customer support, technical writer prepares that user manual, so that you can easily understand and use your washing machine.

Tasks of a Technical writer

As it is a specialized job, technical writers handle a number of functions including content development for websites, document conversion, training materials, prepare manuals, project reports, online help files, instruction manuals, installation guides and brochures for various industries like IT, consumer products, medical journals etc.

Who can be a Technical Writer

If you have good command over English language and passion for writing with basic background in IT, then you can choose technical writing as your career.

You need to have basic degree/diploma in English literature, Journalism, science or Electronics/Computers.

Basic knowledge of computer hardware, operating systems, software applications and programming languages is an added advantage.

Good command over applications such as MS-Word, Power Point, Adobe framemaker, graphic editors such as Snag IT and Photoshop and help authorizinsg tools like Robohelp are useful.

Growth Potential

The starting salaries for technical writers begin between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 and can go upto Rs 30,000 or more with a couple of years of qualitative experience. Starting from a junior technical writer one can expect to rise to senior technical writer, project lead, project manager and move on to become the director of technical communications.

Technical writing is an area that is well developed and accepted in countries like USA and in an infancy stage in India. According to a recent survey there are roughly 2000 technical writers in India, where as USA has a lakh of technical writers. Naturally you will have an early bird advantage if you enter tech writing in India today.

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