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How I Became a Technical Writer

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

In November 1994 I had an interview with Best Power in Necedah, Wisconsin. I interviewed for a position known as "Technical Writer." Basically, I saw the word "writer" and figured any other training I could pick up.

To be sure the day got off to an inauspicious start. When the interview was set up I was told it would take several hours. I would be given tests during the interview.

So, for several days before the interview date, I had taken books out of the public library about schematics and other stuff I thought they would expect me to know. I tried cramming for something I never really learned.

Turns out, the testing involved a typing speed and accuracy test. (I was told my 40 wpm speed was decent considering I employed a "two-finger" method, which I still use. But no one questions the speed I employ in getting a manual done in time.) I was also tested on naming conventions for digital files (remember the eight character/three character convention that DOS and Windows demanded?). Not one question on schematics or symbols.

Before I left Milwaukee I had to change a flat tire. And in changing the flat I busted a socket wrench. Not a good omen, was it?

And then, when I wrote my follow-up Thank You letter, I got the name of one of the people I met wrong.

Yet I was offered the job roughly ten years ago. In January I will have practiced the craft of technical writing for ten years.

By now you've guessed I didn't go to school to be a technical writer. I studied for the public ministry. But my dreams derailed and I had to find a job to pay the bills, etc., just like everyone else. One strength I did have was writing. Another was tinkering and working on cars, tractors, and farm equipment. Both would serve me in a new role as a technical writer.

To be certain, I have only worked with one person who specifically went to school to be a technical writer, and he was a recent graduate of Michigan Technological University. Most of my co-workers were either teachers or engineers. One had a Masters Degree in Russian literature (that crew with her Russian, another lady's Spanish, and my Greek and Hebrew training made for a motley technical writing crew. Another technical writing crew had a native of Argentina and a native of Germany on its staff). Several co-workers were English majors. And an occasional writer was someone who had shown some inclination for the position while they worked in another, often unrelated, position in the company. Your background will not be a hindrance. You need perseverance and diligence in pursuing a job as a technical writer.

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