3 Career Stages for Technical Writers

By Ugur Akinci

3 Career Stages for Technical Writers is like climbing the success mountain. And there is no single path that leads to the summit.
In technical writing, there are three broad paths or stages that you can follow.

One stage starts where the other ends.

What I’m going to share with you here is an approximate picture and does not mean that you have to go through each level in exactly the same manner.

You may perhaps start off from the Intermediate level if you are bringing with you a strong background in software skills and job experience.
Or who knows, you might reach a senior level within just 5 years? That’s certainly possible too.

Individual cases always vary. But I believe what follows is still a useful general picture in terms of presenting you an overall survey of the technical writing landscape and providing some general benchmarks. They are not based on any scientific study but on my personal experience of over 15 years as a technical writer.

Stage 1: Junior-Level Technical Writer


Time on job: 0-5 years
Job skills:

Software skills:

  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Optional: FrameMaker (Unstructured)
  • Optional: Photoshop
  • Optional: Illustrator
  • Optional: Help file editor (RoboHelp, Flare, DoctoHelp, etc.)
  • Optional: Version control software (MS Source Safe, etc.)

Stage 2: Intermediate-Level Technical Writer


Time on job: 5-10 years
Job skills:

Software skills:

  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • FrameMaker (Unstructured and Structured)
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Help file editor (RoboHelp, Flare, DoctoHelp, etc.)
  • Version control software (MS Source Safe, etc.)
  • Optional: Advanced version and content management software (Agile, etc.)
  • Optional: Dreamweaver and/or HTML coding

Stage 3: Senior-Level Technical Writer


Time on job: Over 10 years
Job skills:

  • Writing and editing interface and procedural documentation including user guides, installation guides, quick reference guides, release notes, system configuration guides, help files, API guides.
  • Single-sourcing and structured authoring including DITA structuring and database publishing.
  • Graphic, illustration, print-page and web design skills.
  • Optional: Leading projects as lead-writer and supervising one or more junior and senior writers.
  • Optional: Advanced print and online documentation project localization skills.
  • Optional: Publishing articles in peer-reviewed professional periodicals like STC’s Technical Communication.
  • Optional: serving as a Lead Juror in professional technical communication competitions.

Software skills:

  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • FrameMaker (Unstructured and Structured)
  • Photoshop
  • Illustrator
  • Help file editor (RoboHelp, Flare, DoctoHelp, etc.)
  • Version control software (MS Source Safe, etc.)
  • Optional: Advanced version and content management software (Agile, etc.)
  • Optional: Dreamweaver and/or HTML coding
  • Optional: XML Editor (FrameMaker, Arbortext, Oxygen, etc.)
  • Optional: Database Publishing editor ( TEX, PatternStream, etc.)

To your success! 

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About Ugur Akinci