Technical writing, anyone?

[ThisIsTheDay]

Looking at majors for my son who is interested in a career as a technical writer. He will be graduating CC with a general studies degree. We've looked at Google, Microsoft, etc. ads for tech writers, which suggest an English degree.

 

It somewhat terrifies me to send my son to school for an English degree, which I've always considered to be not the wisest choice, so there's a lot of irony there, lol.

 

Does he go the English route? He can do it. (He's a decent writer, and the Writing Center head at his CC said she'd never read anything better than something he was required to submit to her.) He can get in a programming class and/or an extra math class or two.

 

What other suggestions do you have for a major? And how about a minor? He's done very well in college level Chinese classes, so a Linguistics or Chinese minor might mesh nicely with an English major. Is it feasible to minor in something like Statistics or other minor math, is it even possible to pull that off in two years at this point?

 

I want to look at all options here; as I said, this English major possibility has me a bit nervous.

 

[gstharr]

Tech writing is a strange field.  I know many tech writers.  Not one started off to be a tech writer. Those I know were mostly liberal arts majors.   All fell into  an entry level position somewhere, somehow. Several did contract work.   After a few years experience, tech writing became their career. Seems to be demand for the experienced. 

[elegantlion]

My university has a tech writing degree, it's a concentration with in the English major. We also have a graduate program for tech writing. The people that I know in the program have combined that major with either business and/or foreign languages or computer science as additional majors or minors. 

[TravelingChris]

My daughter is a technical writer, not her goal but she is glad she is getting her security clearance. Anyway, she has a criminal justice degree with homeland security certificate. She had plenty of experience writing both with debate and college but what impressed the man who hired get was that she was the secretary at her HOA.

The other tech writers she has met all had different majors and none were English.

 

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[regentrude]

Technical Communications is a separate major at our school, within the Department of English and Tech Com. There is also a separate graduate program.

Edited November 25, 2017 by regentrude

[skimomma]

The university I work for also has a popular Scientific and Technical Communication degree program.  Several of my friends have this degree and have done very well for themselves.  I don't think it is a rare program.  

[Lori D.]

DH worked on the local fire dept. with a fire captain who was a very successful, in-demand, local technical writer as his side-job to working on the fire dept. He specialized in medical technical writing, as he had knowledge in that area due to his training and work as an EMT and Paramedic.

 

What area would your DS want to write in -- Computer/Software/IT? Science/Engineering? Business/Finance? Manufacturing? Medical/Health Care? He might do best to focus on a general studies degree in that field, with a minor, or coursework, in Technical Writing, rather than majoring in English. For example, Environmental Science and Green Technologies are hot fields right now, and would likely need technical writers. Repeatedly, I see that the more you know about the field, the easier it is to do the writing for that field, and the more likely it is that the degree will help you get a foot in the door of technical writing in that field.

 

Also, going for a degree field that would work well as a "fall-back" job field is a good idea. Sadly, not so many good-paying jobs for those with English degrees.  :(

 

Going for a major in a science/tech field, with a minor or double major in Chinese would be awesome -- he could double his options by being able to also be a translator! :)

 

Here is some info for some early background research on the field:

US Bureau of Labor: Occupational Outlook Handbook: Technical Writer -- statistics on future growth, salary, and education/training needed

Instructional Solutions: How to Become a Technical Writer -- overview of what one does

Linked In: How to Break in to Technical Writing -- tips for interviewing

 

 

BEST of luck! Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Lori D.

[deerforest]

I manage a team of 10 tech writers at a very large tech company--sorry, I can't mention the name here but you'd recognize it. I've worked at another well-known company too. My background is bizarre. I have a dual BA in psychology and Spanish and went to a dual Phd program for cognitive psychology and neuroscience--my speciality was actually language acquisition. I left ABD and realized I knew technology and could write very well and kinda just tripped into this career. The cog science background has been incredibly helpful for understanding things like human factors, usability design, etc. when evaluating product UIs (my team is responsible for all the words that appear in our products).

 

Many of my same-age cohort come from former science or journalism backgrounds.

 

I've hired some recent college grads, and they had a mix of background. One was a communications major, but all three had done a ton of blog style and other freelance writing. They were interested in technology and were excellent writers with strong awareness of current tech issues. I valued their portfolios much higher than their specific college degrees. 

Edited November 26, 2017 by deerforest

[ThisIsTheDay]

Thank you all for your comments, they are much appreciated and give more food for thought as we continue to look at this! As the school does not have a tech writing major (only one state school does, and that one's not on his list), he'll be considering what the best major/minor mixes might be, as well as get as much info as possible before making a decision.

 

:)