Hiring a Technical Author can be difficult if you have never recruited one before. What should the job description include? How do you assess a writing portfolio? Do you need a permanent employee, a contractor, or someone to manage the whole documentation project?
We’ve created a practical guide to help employers make these decisions. It’s available on our website for you to read. There’s no login or email signup required.
What the guide covers
Our guide explains how to define the work, identify the skills you need, and assess whether candidates can do the job.
It includes advice on:
- Choosing between permanent recruitment, contract support, and a managed documentation project.
- Writing a job description that helps suitable candidates recognise the opportunity.
- Assessing CVs, portfolios, and writing samples.
- Setting a short, representative writing assessment.
- Asking interview questions that reveal how candidates investigate, write, and work with others.
- Preparing for your new Technical Author’s first 90 days.
There are also example interview questions, a candidate scorecard, and diagrams explaining the hiring options and routes into the profession.
Why this role needs a different approach
Technical communication is often a second career. Someone starts writing instructions as part of a job in support, engineering, testing, or training, discovers they enjoy it, and moves into a dedicated Technical Author role.
Relevant experience can therefore sit under several different job titles. Screening only for an exact title or a particular authoring tool can exclude people worth interviewing.
The guide explains how to look beyond those labels and examine the evidence: what someone produced, who it helped, how they checked it, and why they made particular decisions.
Read the guide
Read our guide: How to hire a Technical Author: a practical guide for employers.
It is designed for hiring managers, HR teams, and documentation leads, whether you are making your first appointment or improving an existing recruitment process.
If you would like help defining a vacancy or finding suitable candidates, contact Cherryleaf about Technical Author and Technical Writer recruitment.
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