As a technical writer, you are trying to sell yourself in three major ways via your resume. Follow these tips to make sure your technical resume gets you the best job.
1.) You are trying to sell how knowledgeable you are on different technologies
2.) You are trying to sell how well you are able to explain those “technical jargon” items to the prospective reader of your material.
3.) Finally, you are trying to sell how well you can write, use grammar, sentence structure, and format materials that will help demonstrate or illustrate a particular subject. This also includes how precise your writing style is and if you ramble on, or are more direct in your point.
I find for myself that I am good on the first two items above, but that I need help with the third item. Fortunately the more one writes technical briefs the more practice one gets and we have all been told that practice make perfect.
Item number one above is all about familiarity with the technology that one is wanting to write about, but this can be learned and often times technical writers find that they just need some time with the developer or designer to gain the information needed to write the technical piece.
The second item is something that is intrinsic to the person. I find that either people are good at explaining things or they lack in this area. Fortunately, for the third item one can learn and grow.
When writing your resume you want to be very precise with your words. Do stay on topic and choose your words carefully. I would suggest that you customize your resume for that specific company and tailor it to their needs. Review their web site and gain a feel for who they are and the type of person that you will be writing. Ensure that your resume has examples similar to their type of company or as close as possible. This is where you can highlight your knowledge on particular subjects.
Do include how you used other technologies to enhance your writing. Explain how you built a graph that illustrated some point that was vital to the audience understanding the concept, or how the graph enhanced the project.
Show that you do know some technical jargon words, but don’t include so many jargon words that your resume is overly heavy in acronyms and slang lingo. Do include examples of how you took some very complicated wording and changed or modified to make it more understandable.
Don’t add jargon to just add jargon. You must have a very well written purpose to include the lingo.
Do have a section that displays your expertise in computer skills. If you are an expert with graphic software, include this information in your skills set.
Do show that you know how to format a page well. To your prospective employer your resume will be their first look at your writing and most importantly how you layout information on a page.
I would suggest that you don’t over do anything; you don’t want too many lists or bulleted items. Nor do you want long text areas that stray off topic.
Do include all possible ways to contact you, including email, phone, a web site, and a home address.
If you are new to being a technical writer, then do go about creating a portfolio by picking subjects to write about in order to show your writing style. Perhaps you take a technical piece the needs some “expert help”, a good example would be some directions on how to put something together. I am sure that we all have had to work with badly formatted instructions, and re-write them into a usable document.
Do produce your own web site so you can have an online portfolio that provides examples to others your writing style, your ability to simplify technical concepts as well as your overall understanding of technology related fields.
As a writer, by using your technical writing skills properly within your resume, you have a better chance on obtaining that position or contract. The tips above are just a few of the ways that you can ensure your resume says “I’m a Technical Writer!”
