Paid pre-career technical writing experience?

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Does anyone know of any jobs in which you could get experience for technical writing/communication, but that doesn't require a degree? (Not a technical writing degree, but no degree at all)
I'd actually take unpaid if that's available too.
I'm trying to determine if there's any sort of way to get experience so I would actually have something practical I've done for somebody else to show as an example when trying to be hired as a technical writer.
It wouldn't even have to be technical writing specifically, just something that relates would be great.
 

Terie

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I can't think of any particular 'pre-tech writing career' types of jobs. In my case, I got my first tech writing job at a company I'd been working at for six years. I volunteered to do any writing and design tasks in my previous positions (which were mostly clerical and data entry way back then), even though the tasks weren't part of my job description.

I was promoted to the tech writing department from within the company, and then had several subsequent tech writing jobs before I ever got my degree, but that was a decade and a half ago. In an employer's market like now, whether a candidate has a degree is often the first cut when HR is reviewing resumes/CVs. It's not always fair (in my first tech writing job, the best writers in the department were also those who didn't have degrees), but it's reality.

So, as far as getting experience, many types of corporate jobs might provide an opportunity for you to get some practice. For example, if you have programming skills and have/get a job as a programmer, you might be able to write source material for the tech writer on a project, and then work closely with the tech writer during review so as to pick their brain and learn new stuff. Maybe you could get a job as a copywriter for a catalogue company, where you'd be writing and could learn some layout. You could volunteer to write, edit, and/or lay out white papers for the company you work for. If the department you work in (literally ANY sort of job) doesn't have a 'policies and procedures manual', volunteer to write one; if it does, review it to see if it needs to be updated, and if so, volunteer to do the work.

Written communication is key to any company's business practices. If you can't find a job where 'writing' is in the job description, there still might be lots of opportunities for you to take on extra writing-related tasks.

Good luck!
 

pdknz

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Hmm. This problem is a bit ironic for me, because I stumbled into tech writing with basically no training and no desire to do it.

My education was originally as a chemical engineer, later law school, and finally engineering again. I suppose it's odd that none of those educational tracks included writing as such, but they didn't. When I eventually took a tech writing course as a continuing education thing, it was a lot like going back to about eighth grade grammar, for whatever that is worth.

As a production engineer, the writing was mainly in the form of memos reporting on my projects. Legal work sorta speaks for itself. In a later engineering job, I edited other people's reports about environmental investigations, and wrote a few, in addition to grant requests and reports. More recently, as a retired environmental engineer, I work for a tribal government and have been writing more grant requests.

My point is that there is a lot of writing that needs to be done, and that someone has to do it. I guess I'm echoing Terie's note, but I might add that grant proposals are a growth field, and that any non-profit runs largely on grants. In fact, grants are available to almost anyone. Not easily, of course, but if that's what you want to do, it probably pays to look around.
 

pinkrobot

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Is there a reason you can't/don't want to go to school for technical writing? It would open the door for internships, which may pay and are great experience. Sure, you might be able to work your way into a technical writing job without a degree, but simply being enrolled in classes would increase your chances significantly.
 

Tsu Dho Nimh

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You need a degree in something. Mine is In Microbiology, but it gets me past the HR department.

As for breaking into the field, just volunteer to write for a charity, edit and improve the documentation for some open source software, or let your current employer know you'd like to take on some of the writing tasks that crop up in any business. Shazam! You is a tech writer.
 

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Or even become an expert on some technical something and start blogging.

I've gotten work in terms of technical writing because of blogging.
 

LOG

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Is there a reason you can't/don't want to go to school for technical writing?

I'm already in school for an English/Mass Communications degree.
I've been talking to the professor at my school who's the go-to guy for tech writing, he's supported something similar to this thread: mainly that producing writing and finishing a degree (regardless of what it is) are among the best things I could do.
The degree will take awhile longer yet (although if I'm lucky I'll be done a semester earlier than I thought), and I started writing articles for Examiner.com.
 

FOTSGreg

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I hate to be a contrarian, but a career at technical writing might be obe of the worst moves to make by someone who wants to write fiction (if this isn't you, move on, these aren't the droids you're looking for).

I spent 8 years writing for a fire testing company and about that many years also writing for newspapers in my youth. I also spent 6 years writing technical papers and doing technical analysis for the US government.

Not only did all that technical experience impede my progress as a writer, it locked me into a mindset that I'm still working to break and, at the end of a day the last damn thing I wanted to touch was a keyboard.

Tech writing teaches you to focus your critical mind, to be very exacting in your style and descriptive process, and not only encourages, but enforces info-dumping on the reader. You'll spend long hours with scientists and engineers who couldn't write their way out of a wet paper bag, but who believe their wording to be the most precise description of what they're trying to do. You'll rewrite over and over and over a bajillion times until Engineer Tommy or Rocket Scientist Andy thinks it's polished just perfectly and when you read it through at the end of the night it'll make about as much sense as trying to read Sanskrit.

And I know science, not rocket science maybe, but I knew fire chemistry and I can practically (almost) do certain scale vector calculations in my head and sometimes I'd look at an engineer or a scientist and say "Guy, listen to what you just had me write" after which I'd read it aloud to them. Then I'd tell them "Get out of my office for a few hours. I'll take your data, compile a cognitive and readable discussion of what the data says, hand it to you, and then you can edit. You will not edit it as I write it, especially over my gawddamned shoulder!"
 

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I'm already in school for an English/Mass Communications degree.

Excellent! Now, what sort of tech authoring do you want to do? You need to be somewhat qualified to talk about a subject. For example, do you use lots of software products? Do you think you could write a manual for the latest version of something, or update an existing version of a manual to the latest software version? This is just one of many options to show that you have an interest in technology and are capable of writing both technically and clearly so that readers will understand - whatever the audience. If there's a producer nearby, ask if you can get a few weeks of work experience with them to prove that you can write, and hopefully a door will open.

This applies to other areas of technology as well, of course.

As an aside, I was a tech author for 10+ years and I don't think my fiction writing skills have been hampered in the least. I do find writing query letters hard work because I go back into formal tech author mode. This is just to balance what FOTSGreg said, presuming you're at all interested in writing fiction (I certainly wasn't during my entire career as a tech author).
 

zornhau

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Does anyone know of any jobs in which you could get experience for technical writing/communication, but that doesn't require a degree? (Not a technical writing degree, but no degree at all)
I'd actually take unpaid if that's available too.
I'm trying to determine if there's any sort of way to get experience so I would actually have something practical I've done for somebody else to show as an example when trying to be hired as a technical writer.
It wouldn't even have to be technical writing specifically, just something that relates would be great.

It's not a bad profession for a wannabe fictioneer. You learn to finish projects, to accept feedback, to describe complex things in simple ways, and you yearn to dig your way clear to the fiction.

In the UK, at least, you don't need a degree in technical coms (mine is in Classics and Medieval History). However, you do need a break... you need to be working in an organisation which needs procedures written down, and gradually edge your way into it.
 
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