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Subject:Re: Where did you get your feet wet? From:Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 6 Jun 2005 09:48:18 -0400
I went to an engineering school for architecture. After three
semesters I decided I needed sleep and so switched to communications.
I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Communication, with a minor
in electronic media arts (digital graphics/animation/music).
My first job was with a buddy of mine as a typesetter for a
translation company.
I wanted more (ore money, more fulfilling work, etc.) so I began
hunting again. I responded to an ad for a Senior Tech Writer, and
though I had zero tech writing experience, they ere impressed with my
cover letter enough to bring me in for an interview. I guess I did
well, as they hired me in as an entry level help author. I picked up
the tools and methodologies very quickly and made team lead over help
development within six months.
I guess you could say that I leveraged my tech writing skills to get
my feet wet. ;-)
On 6/5/05, Lori Olcott <lori_olcott -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Several of these threads have gotten me wondering how most of us got
> involved in tech writing to begin with. How many of you have your
> bachelors or masters in the field? How many of you grew into it from
> previous jobs? How many of you just thought it sounded interesting and
> jumped on in?
>
> How necessary is a formal education in the field? Someone recently made a
> crack about people who wrote a few how-to sheets and fancy themselves tech
> writers. (That's ok, I forgive you.) But is it totally unreasonable to
> expect on-the-job experience to get a foot in the door?
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