By Ellis Pratt, Head of Recruitment, Cherryleaf. 2011.

Introduction

The role of the technical author (also known as technical Writer or information developer) is one that many would-be hirers are unfamiliar with.

As it is a specialist profession, it can be difficult for organisations to recruit good technical authors. Firstly, there can be challenges in developing the job description, setting an appropriate salary and finding a suitable recruitment agency. Secondly, there is the challenge of selecting the right candidate from the list of CVs you receive and the people you interview.

What is a technical author?

Originally, "technical author" meant someone who created traditional technical manuals. Today it's much more than this, with the role covering technical communication using all sorts of media: online Help, Web pages, electronic catalogues and e-learning. The need for better communication has led to technical authors being used to explain complex systems in areas such as software, services and finance.

In reality, technical authors are paid to make things simpler for users - explaining instructions to make life easier. Unfortunately, not every manual (about half, in fact) is written by a trained technical author, which means there are a lot of very technical, poorly written documents out there.

What do technical authors do?

A technical author would typically be involved in three key activities:

1. understanding the requirement and the system itself
2. planning and managing the writing project
3. writing and presenting the information

In most cases, you’ll be looking to recruit someone who is able to explain technical information to non-technical people. Your technical author will need to be able to get involved with new things and work out how they operate. They’ll also need to be able to move between different areas of the business in order to get the work done.

What skills and knowledge do they need?

From various surveys, we’ve identified the capabilities that technical authors need to have.

These are, in order of priority:

1. Excellent writing skills
2. Good project and time management skills
3. Experience with the authoring tools
4. Domain knowledge expertise

Depending on circumstances, there can be a requirement for additional skills, such as coding and programming, indexing, graphics development, localization, usability and QA testing.

Qualifications

In the United Kingdom, you may not find candidates with a degree in technical communication. This is because there are very few degree courses in this subject.

What makes a great technical author?

There has been some preliminary research into the differences between average and great technical authors. From our research (and others), the solution to being a successful technical author lies in not only in being a good writer, but also in being good at positioning, promotion and project management.

Finding good candidates

In truth, nobody knows the exact number of technical authors in the UK. We estimate there are between 3,500 and 5,000 people formally employed as technical authors, but there are many other people doing technical writing as part of their job.

In addition to the general recruitment agencies, there are also some companies, such as Cherryleaf, that specialise and focus on the recruitment of technical authors. Whoever assists you in finding candidates needs to be able to assess each candidate appropriately they need to be able to judge whether a candidate has the appropriate writing skills, project management skills, tools skills etc.

They should also be able to advise you on creating a suitable job description, what salary to offer and provide you with candidate assessment tests, where needed.

Summary

Whilst the job can be very rewarding, it can be a challenge finding good candidates. The role of the technical author is widely unknown and some people doing technical communication might not even be aware that they are technical authors. There is no natural path from college to employment, and many technical authors have no formal qualification in technical communication. Specialists, such as Cherryleaf, can help you find a good selection of suitable candidates and enable you to recruit the right candidate for you.

More information

See Cherryleaf's technical author recruitment services.