Tag Archives: careers

Getting started as a freelance Technical Author

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One of the most common questions we get asked is for advice on becoming a freelance Technical Author. To help address that question in depth, we written an ebook, which you can purchase via the Cherryleaf website.

This guide answers the key questions people have when considering a freelance career as a Technical Author. It is focused on starting out as a freelance Technical Author in the United Kingdom, and in the IT and medical equipment sectors. However, many of the sections will also be applicable to other countries and other industry sectors.

See Getting started as a freelance Technical Writer ebook

What Technical Authors can learn from pole dancers

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Pole dancer Flickr creative commons image by gophotodotcomThe conversation in a meeting yesterday went somewhat “off-topic” when someone commented on the difference between accountants and pole dancers.

Their comparison might apply between Technical Authors and pole dancers, as well: that pole dancers probably do a boring job (i.e twirling around a pole day after day) that’s seen as interesting, whereas Technical Authors (and accountants) do an interesting job that’s often seen as boring.

So what can Technical Authors learn from pole dancers? WikiHow suggests a pole dancer’s success is more to do their ability to gain rapport with the customer and keep their attention, than their dancing skills. This ability to “know” your customer and gain their attention, is perhaps a useful reminder to Technical Authors to do the same with their “performance” (that is, with the deliverables they produce).

Is there a difference between a Content Strategist and a Technical Author?

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What’s in a name – at this week’s Content Strategy Meetup, which unfortunately I missed due to illness, a number of the attendees and speakers came from the technical communications community. They were Technical Authors/Documentation Managers or had a background as a Technical Author.

So are Technical Authors and Content Strategists one and the same thing? Do they require the same skill set? Do they look at the same type of content? Is the only difference the salary levels?

What do you think?

Cherryleaf featured in this month’s PC Pro magazine

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In this month’s edition (confusingly dated January 2013) of PC Pro magazine, Stuart Andrews explores the role of technical writer, the person behind technical documentation. In the short article, he interviews Ginny Critcher, Director at Cherryleaf, who explains the highs and lows of working as a Technical Author.

Ginny Critcher in PC Pro magazine

PC Pro magazine Jan 2013

Cherryleaf interview in PC Pro Magazine

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Cherryleaf’s Ginny Critcher has been interviewed by PC Pro Magazine about the role of the Technical Author today.

Ginny has extensive project management skills and has considerable experience using the main technical authoring tools. She is fluent in Spanish, has an MSc (in Information Systems), a BA (in Spanish Studies) and an RSA TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) certificate.

The article should be published in the December edition of the magazine.

Writing as a career in IT

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Here are the slides from our presentation to Year 10 children at The Matthew Arnold School in Staines-upon-Thames on writing as a career in IT. We looked at the different writing postions in companies, such as Apple, and then looked at the role of the Technical Author/Writer. The class had to write an instruction manual for a new eco-messaging product (aka a typewriter).

Writing as a career in IT

Do you need a Documentation Manager when Technical Authors are embedded into Agile project teams?

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Earlier this week, I was asked my opinion on whether a Documentation Manager was needed when the individual Technical Authors are embedded into Agile project teams.

My response was that a Documentation Manager mainly provides people management, project management, process management and content management. If a Technical Author is a member of a software project team, then that team’s Project Manager is probably providing the people management and the project management to the writer.

That leaves the need for someone to manage the processes and manage the content. I suggested managing the content could be done by someone with the role of Editor (or “Content Wrangler”). They might also look after the processes, or they could have another writer take on that responsibility.

It’s then a decision as to whether the organisation sees these roles as senior to the technical writing positions, or as a specialism and consequently on the same job grade.

It does leave the management of the writers’ career progression falling through the cracks, unfortunately.

How do others deal with this issue?