Breaking In?

[Geoff Hart]

Harry Husted wondered: <<I have worked as a writer for years. I only  
worked as a technical writer for a very brief time (about one year  
out of nearly 20). I see ads for technical writers all the time but  
each job I see listed states you must have experience with the  
program or application they are using. How can i break into the  
technical writing field if every job lead specifies you must have  
experience with the program or system they are using?>>

How? By getting that experience. <g> You can find courses in most  
popular programs in just about any big city, or better still, save  
several hundred dollars and download a demo version of the software,  
then pick up a "For Dummies" or "Learn X in 7 days" type of book that  
teaches you how to use the software. In fact, many of these books  
contain the demo version on a CD tucked into the book, so you don't  
even have to download a copy.

Spend a week getting up to speed on the software, and use it to write  
a manual on the basics of using the software! By the end of the week,  
you'll have both basic skills in the software, and a portfolio item  
you can use to prove that you have those skills.

<<Should I focus my technical writing on nontechnical writing areas?>>

Focus on work that you'd love to do. For example: http://www.geoff- 
hart.com/resources/2006/finding-work.htm

Since it wasn't apparent to at least one reader of the article, I  
hasten to add that this article specifically avoids discussing things  
like Monster.com and other modern job-hunting tools: I figured  
everyone knows about these already, and that they've been written  
about in so much depth I had nothing new to say. Instead, I propose a  
bunch of things most people don't think of in their job search --  
like finding out what you'd love to do before you try to find a job  
in that area.

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Geoff Hart   ghart at videotron.ca

(try geoffhart at mac.com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

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