Career tips from an OG!!!
Hello to all my new subscribers, and old subscribers. I hope you're all doing great?
This newsletter has been growing at a steady rate of 100 new subscribers every month, and I'm very grateful for that. It goes to show that we're doing something right.
At the beginning of this year, I told myself that this newsletter would go out on the 7th of every month. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do that this month.
Linda: 0, Consistency: 1
In my defense though, I've had a lot to do (If you check the website, you'd see it has a new look 👀), and I didn't want to send out a half-baked newsletter.
Anyway, Tuesday was International Women's Day. To all the beautiful women here, I see you, I appreciate you, and I celebrate you. Keep being phenomenal.
Now, down to business.
New on the blog:
1) #TCCS3 From Staff Technical Writer to Developer Advocate; Read Amruta Ranade’s story
For the benefit of our new subscribers, TCCS (The Tech Content Creator Series) is a monthly interview series where I chat with people in technical content creation roles (i.e. technical writers, documentation engineers, developer advocates, and what have you) about their careers. My hope is for these stories to inspire, motivate, and hopefully impact you.
This month, I sat down with an OG in the technical writing space, Amruta Ranade.
Amruta has worked as a Technical Writer for over ten years, progressing from Technical Writer to Senior Technical Writer to Staff Technical Writer to Developer Advocate and back to Staff Technical Writer.
In this episode, she talks about her transition from developer advocacy back to technical writing and the valuable lessons she learned along the way. She also shared some valuable career advice based on her wealth of experience.
Read all about it here.
2) How to write articles that your readers will actually read
Do you know that users read through the content on a webpage only 16% of the time? Well, that's because most web content are not optimized for the way users read.
In this article — based on my learnings from user psychology — I talk about how you can tailor your writing to align with how users read on the web, in order to capture their attention and increase the likelihood of them reading your articles.
Read all about it here.
3) 2 proven ways to make money as a freelance technical writer
The bulk of this article used to be my pinned tweet, I just added more details.
This article discusses two ways developer writers (both newbie and experienced) can some extra bucks from freelance writing, while also building up their technical writing portfolio.
I also talk about how to pitch article ideas (which is one question I get asked all the time).
Read all about it here.
Jobs
CodinGame is looking for freelance tech writers to help them create articles of ~ 1500 on Tech team management, Career growth / Upskilling, Keeping up with Tech trends, Developer retention, e.t.c. They're paying $200 - $300 per article. If you're interested in this, reach out to me, and I'll link you up with their head of content.
Semaphore is looking for someone with a demonstrated ability to write for developers to join them as a technical writer. Apply here
NextPay is hiring a remote Technical Writer Intern. Check it out here.
Bloomreach is also hiring a Technical Writer Intern. Check it out here.
The job opportunities I share here are mainly those shared with me by my professional network. However, if you're looking for more job opportunities for technical writers, startup.jobs has a massive listing of companies hiring technical writers :)
Resources handpicked from the web just for you
1) This thread on Twitter contains common grammatical word-related mistakes that I see a lot of writers make. Definitely recommend reading.
2) This huge-ass thread on Reddit will answer all or most of the questions you have about the technical writing career — salaries, education, getting started, e.t.c
Final Words
1) Every month, I put in a lot of effort to write articles on the everythingtechnicalwriting.com blog, and also interview these industry OGs, just for you.
I only ask that you do one thing in return for me: share this newsletter to help other people like you find it.
As usual, the sharer with the most engagement wins a gift from me.
Click the arrow next to the link :)
2) At the start of the year, a lady reached out to me that she wanted to work on everythingtechnicalwriting.com with me. Please, if you're reading this, reach out to me on Twitter again. I can't find your handle, and I finally have something you can help with, and it'll be paid.
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Well, that's all I have for you today. Till I write you next time, stay safe and keep grinding!!
P.S, If you have any idea on how I can make this newsletter more valuable and accommodating for you, don't hesitate to hit the reply button or reach out on Twitter.
Bye.