Who can become a Technical Writer?
In fact, it is ideal for Non-Techies and for Testers and Developers who are looking for alternative jobs in IT.
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Unlike jobs in Programming (Coding) and Testing that does demand skills such as Program Logic, programming (coding) in more than one programming languages, database skills and debugging skills (besides others), Technical Writing doesn’t demand any such skills. In fact to become a successful Technical Writer a decent level of High school English is more than enough.
By the way Testers and Developers (Coders) who have a flair for writing and are looking for alternative careers can easily migrate to Technical Writing. One very big advantage Testers and Developers have is that they can understand functionality of software way better than non-techies (who normally come from a B.A in English background) and hence can become brilliant Technical Writers.
The absolute pre-requisite for a Technical Writer is the knowledge of a Help Authoring Tool (HAT). Why a HAT? Because all Technical Writing these days are done using one of the several HATs available in the market today. A HAT is just a better Editor than your Microsoft Word, Libre Office or Google Document. For instance with Microsoft Word, you can only generate two types of deliverables, 1. a docx file and 2. a .pdf file but with a HAT you can generate a variety of formats including e-books, e-pub, Online Help (also called Webhelp and Nethelp), compiled HTML help, Help for Languages such as Java (Java Help), Oracle (Oracle Help) and so on. You can even generate MS Word and .pdf documents from the one single source of documentation. There are several HATs in the market today (Adobe Robohelp, Madcap Flare, Adobe Framemaker) and I teach a HAT (Help + Manual) completely for free and if you wish to check out the video lessons they can be accessed here. By the way, the lessons here comprise a full-fledged course in Technical Writing.
