I became a technical writer as a career change; my college degre was in music performance and I had worked for several years in various kinds of secretarial positions. After taking a one-year Associate Degree program in technical writing at a community college, I got an internship with a company that afterwards hired me. This company had an ongoing internship program, getting a new intern every three months, and I participated in the program, helping with interviewing, training, and mentoring. We chose candidates who came from wide ranges of previous backgrounds, most of whom were making a significant career change like me rather than being college graduates with a degree in technical writing. All of our interns were valuable members of our writing group during their internship and afterwards all were hired as technical writers by well-known companies.
What all our interns had in common were strengths in the technical-writing skill sets that others in this thread have already mentioned, and which the interns acquired or refined by taking classes specifically for technical writing. Having prior knowledge of the subject matter (software, hardware, science, etc.) and the tools being used by a company (FrameMaker, RoboHelp, etc.) help lower the learning curve when you are new to a position. But I don't believe they are as important as the knowledge and skills that all technical writers have in common, regardless of what they are documenting. The subject matter is always changing and evolving anyway. So if you want to become a technical writer, the best advice I would give is to invest the time and money in attending a program that teaches technical writing. Lisa Shepherd This message posted from opensolaris.org
