Writing Your Technical Writing Resume
If anyone in the entire universe ought to have a perfect resume,
it's a technical writer. Tech writers are supposed to be expert
writers and fanatically obsessed with technical accuracy and
relevance. Does this describe your resume?
A tech writing manager we know developed a 30-column spreadsheet
to assess technical writing candidates. Three of the criteria
are about resumes. Let's talk about them:
Accurate and organized - as a document, a sample of your
writing, is your resume scrupulously accurate, down to the
smallest details, and organized in a clear and logical way? Is
the writing really good, so that it grabs the reader's attention
without relying on empty buzzwords? Did you format it so that it
looks clean and neat? Remember that tech writing managers know
how to look behind the scenes into your document - they can run
spell checks, view nonprinting characters, and even see whether
you wrote it on your home computer or at the office.
Error-free - is your resume absolutely, without the
smallest exception, free of typos, errors of fact, misspellings,
and any other error that will proclaim to the reader, "I'm not
as careful about checking things as I'd like you to think"?
Proper tool use - Did you format your document using
spaces and extra carriage returns? Or were you able to use
styles and other features of your authoring tool effectively and
efficiently, as a mark of a pro? Does your document contain
evident use of advanced tool expertise, such as macros or
protection, to show that you really know how to get the most out
of the tool?
Note that these are in addition to content. If the content of
your resume shows no experience or aptitude for technical
writing, never mind the above. The days when anyone who could
open a Word file could get hired as a tech writer are,
thankfully, gone.
Now, a word about content: remember that your resume is your
initial sales opportunity. So sell! Keeping in mind all of the
above - including the scrupulously accurate part - make your
words show what you can do, based on what you have done.
"Updated a manual using Frame" doesn't tell a hiring manager
much at all.
Why not instead say what you did to overcome the challenges of
that project to deliver your updates on time, on budget, to user
acclaim, or whatever scrupulously accurate measures of success
you can legitimately claim? Remember that the hiring manager,
and even more so the HR person who does the initial resume
screening, may have no idea what Frame is. So don't focus on the
tools.
Mention tools in their proper context, but focus on what you got
done. Show measurable achievements where you can. Show that you
understand the business or scientific context in which you
worked. There's nothing more valuable, because this is a good
indicator that you will understand a new business or scientific
context if you get hired.
For more information, see TechWritingJobs.com
and the next article in this series, 7
Ways to Make Your Resume Do Its Job.