How to Become a Technical Writer

(A personal account published at Tom Johnson’s excellent blog)
by Sarah Pruitt
Deciding to become a technical writer was easy. But finding the experience and the time has proven unforgiving. My job is not based on writing; in fact, writing is rarely needed. Between working full-time at a bank doing account maintenance (which is equivalent to data entry and entry-level coding) and going to school part-time in the evenings, I don’t find much time to create writing samples for a portfolio.
Writing is based on critical thinking and organization, but how do you measure proficiency in brain activity? Most employers tend to measure it through experience, which they often view through writing samples that you submit to them. But by the time I get home at 9:00 pm, I’m burned out from the day, and any hope of writing is gone. I have even attempted a blog, but without a focus it jumped from creative writing to personal dilemmas to sporadic quotes.
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