Every member of the techcomm community loves technical writing for one reason or another. Otherwise, why would they stick to this industry, right?
Help authoring is quite a special occupation that requires a certain personality type and skill set, we already spoke about in the article on the perfect skills for a technical writer. What we are trying to say is - sure, some people enter technical writing by accident, but then they realize quite quickly whether it is what they would like to do.
For those who came into the field of technical writing either willingly or by accident, but stayed, here's our techcomm praise, or simply ten reasons why we love technical writing.
1. Easy entry level
For many people, this might be the initial reason why they applied for a tech writer role. Requirements differ from sphere to sphere but, in general, it is quite easy to start a techcomm career.
2. Nice payback
While entering technical writing can be easy peasy, it is considered a nicely paid occupation at the same time. This combo is responsible for the growing popularity of technical writing. Check out what different businesses are paying technical writers.
3. Career jumpstart
Even those who don't see creating help topics as something they would like to do for too long love tech writing because it is an awesome way to jumpstart a career in a professional field. For example, if you feel like you want to be a software developer, but your skills need improvement, you can try getting into IT through the technical writer role and work your way towards development gradually.
4. Learning new stuff
Most tech writing documents require research, and, thus, you will be driven towards knowledge automatically. This is a great chance to learn a lot of new things about the subject matter! Technical writers working with different projects (like case deflection, online tutorials, knowledge bases, and so on) are basically walking encyclopedias.
5. Communication
The techcomm community is a very welcoming place. So, communication with peers should feel nice. Besides that, being a tech writer means collaborating with other teams in a company a lot. Even if you are a freelancer, you will never feel lonely.
6. Helping others
This is a great perspective on technical writing, and it is one hundred percent true - helping people is the main purpose of user manuals. The best technical documentation is created with its readers in mind: who they are, what kind of assistance they need, what issues they might face and what the best way to help them is.
7. Happy place for perfectionists
Technical documentation is a happy place for a perfectionist indeed. What's neater than a well-written perfectly-structured help topic? High-quality technical documentation portals always look good with all the topics in a TOC perfectly categorized.
8. Visiting conferences and events
We have already mentioned the terrific international techcomm family. And, this family has its own family holidays. Dozens upon dozens of events are taking place yearly all over the globe. What a great opportunity to mingle and learn key industry insights! BTW, there's still a lot to do in 2019 in this regard, check out our post on technical writing events for the second half of 2019.
9. Freelance friendliness
Not many occupations are as freelance friendly as technical writing. So, this is an awesome career opportunity for people who hate to be stuck in the office.
10. Gaining new skills
Aside from theoretical knowledge, technical writers are gaining a lot of new skills. Video content creation is a great example here, as technical writers are often the ones who produce such content for help topics. We should not forget about the tools for technical writers they master, starting from solutions for taking screenshots and ending with serious stuff like help authoring tools.
Conclusion
Well, that is a very pleasant and inspiring topic to cover. We have tried to recollect all the great things about being a technical writer. What else is good? Feel free to share with us what you love about your job in techcomm!
Good luck with your technical writing!
ClickHelp Team
Author, host and deliver documentation across platforms and devices