RE: breaking out in technical communications

["Barnett, Eva" <Eva -dot- Barnett -at- aketontechnologies -dot- com>]

Hi Joan,

Sorry if this is no longer timely...digest delay, you know.

------------ Lisa Wright wrote: ------------------------
See if you can arrange internships through your college...And it likely means that you're in a more highly structured environment that has the resources an intern needs, with mentors readily available. You'll likely end up doing grunt work, but it's valuable experience.
------------ /Lisa Wright ------------------------

I just wanted to chime in with my personal experience. Between my sophomore and junior years in college, I got a one-year tech writing internship that turned out really great. As an intern, I was given a lot of support and plenty of time to get up-to-speed on tools and a non-academic writing style. The really great thing was that I was the sole tech writer, so I got to do "real" tech writing. (See the archives for the recent discussions on the benefits of a trial-by-fire introduction to the field.)

Caveat: I found this great, juicy internship in 1997 at the height of the dot-com boom; it might be much harder to find something like it now.

Good luck! (By the way, kudos for thinking ahead! I remember my friends' first-job-search agonies upon graduating with no work experience.)

-Eva

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