Technical Writing 101: How to get Jobs, Gigs & Opportunities

Table of Content

• Building technical writing skills.

• Creating a portfolio.

• Applying for Jobs.

  • Sending Cold Emails.

Introduction

I have had my share of opportunities be it technical writing or software development. Sometimes these opportunities are copped through the usual route of applying for job opportunities, other times, via cold emails or DMs from CEOs or CTOs reaching out to me and asking if I would be interested in writing technical articles for their company blogs.

Over the years, although technical writers are in high demand, most technical writers find it somewhat stressful securing opportunities and gigs, both freelance or contract/part-time and full-time. Hence, there's a need for clarification in the technical writing space with respect to building portfolios and getting yourself ready for opportunities.

In this blog, we're going to talk about how to better position yourself for opportunities as a technical writer - have a read!

Building Technical Writing Skills

Technical writing is curating instruction manuals, how-to guides, tutorials, and other supporting documents to communicate technical information in an easy-to-understand form.

You need two essential skills to become a good technical writer and land opportunities that will help you make money online.

Coding Skills
Writing Skills

People have been asking me, "Hi Leslie, do I need coding skills to work as a technical writer?" The short answer is Yes and No.

Yes because you need to know the basics of programming since most topics you will be writing on will involve breaking down complex programming concepts into a more comprehensible form.

Writing a technical article aims to help the reader solve a problem or learn something new. In most cases, you have to solve these problems using code and then write about the solution by including code snippets and screenshots.
From my experience so far, coding has always been involved in almost all commercial technical articles I have worked on.

No, because you can be a designer writing articles about design or design tools. Also, you can be a data analyst writing articles on data analysis and tools.

Creating a Portfolio

A strong background history or portfolio is critical in any job search irrespective of the industry. The technical writing industry is no exception. A technical writing portfolio is a collection of technical article samples that you have written. As a technical writer, having a portfolio is very important because when a client or a recruiter wants to hire you, they want to see your previous work.

To build a portfolio as a technical writer build coding projects and then write on how you built these projects.

For example, let's say you have learnt how to build a CRUD app with Express and Supabase, you can document the steps it took you to build the app from start to finish. This can be done by ensuring that it follows the usual title, heading and conclusion format and attaching code snippets, screenshots and/or demo videos. Take a look at my article on data visualization and look at how it follows the order.

Do this for two or three projects and publish the articles on free developer blogging platforms like:

• DevTo

• Medium

• Hashnode

Articles published on these blogging platforms will serve as your portfolio. Clients or recruiters might come across your articles on these blogging platforms and reach out to you.

It's the same way a CEO reached out to me and offered me a gig worth $2000. This is proof of my claim:

Applying for Jobs

Applying for jobs has to be the biggest headache for technical writers. There are lots of writing and guest author programs here for technical writers to apply to. There are also Paid Community Programs and Community Writer Programs carefully curated for writers.

But hang on, lots of writers fail to understand what these programs really look out for. I find a good number of writers getting their proposed topics rejected when applying for these roles.

When you go through these programs, you'll realize that each of these programs has its target niche. When you look at the Author Program of Invertase what does it say?

It's obvious that what their author program is interested in is content on Firebase, Dart & Flutter, Web Technologies, etc. This basically tells you that in order for you to secure a role with this author program, you should have knowledge in these areas. How do you show that you have knowledge and expertise in those areas? - By having article samples or a portfolio that revolves around those topics. The same thing applies to any other writing program - Take note!

Sending Cold Emails

There are thousands of companies, fully-fledged ones as well as startups beyond those included in the above writing programs that may require the services of technical writers mainly to create content that will revolve around their product or software in order to increase their reach.

How do you find these startups and fully-fledged companies?
You can look out for companies on Linkedin that have less than 20 or 50 employees by using the keyword 'YC' in the search bar and clicking on the Companies tab. YC is a startup accelerator company that invests funds in a lot of early-stage startups and helps them grow by giving them access to an elite network.

As you can see below, the keyword results in about 1000 startups you can apply to.

Once you find a target company, regardless of their hiring status, send a connection request to the employees listed above with a certain message or email attached. This message should contain a very convincing message about yourself and your skill set (also add your resume or CV).

Then you would pitch yourself to the company, explaining to them that if their budget did not allow for a new hire, you'd be willing to work for free as your only goal is to gain real-world experience (this is the hook that grabs their attention). This has landed a good number of tech writers and developers full-time and part-time roles.

I personally did this and it landed me a huge technical writing contract. Trust me, it'll work for you too once you put it in the work. Look at screenshots of my email transcripts below:

The Cold Email:

The Response:

Conclusion
Technical writing can be a lucrative and rewarding career, but getting started can be challenging. To be successful, you'll need to develop your technical writing skills and create a strong portfolio that shows the world your work.

Building an audience on social media, applying to community writer programs, and sending cold emails are all effective ways of finding technical writing opportunities.

Follow me on Twitter @dev_leslie_ for daily tips on technical writing