Industry subject matter knowledge and tools skills

Mission statement

My mission statement is:

I will complete the PTW program for my career and personal development to grow my technical writing skills, portfolio, and confidence to become a full-time writer.

This statement is still accurate. I continue to work through the PTW program for my career and personal development. I want to improve my skills, portfolio, and confidence so I can leave the engineering field to be a writer. I’ve wanted to be a writer for several years, and this program gives me an opportunity to become one.

Industry research

My target industry is cloud software infrastructure and engineering. My goal is to write for both cloud practitioners and enthusiasts.

Types of documentation deliverables

The primary and secondary deliverable types for this industry are:

• Software documentation with code examples
• API documentation with endpoint descriptions

Software documentation spans “getting-started guides to in-depth documentation on technical workflows.” Readers of all skill levels use this kind of document. It describes how to use a program, how it works, or how specific industries use it.

API documentation is more specialized than software documentation. It defines the inputs and outputs for specific “RESTful” endpoints. This Senior Technical Writer role works on a corpus that includes API documentation. This type of documentation helps programmers build systems on top of existing software.

For either deliverable type, the primary audience are technical people with experience as working or hobbyist developers.

Essential subject matter knowledge areas

In most job listings, the hiring company prefers candidates with some developer experience. For example, this Technical Author listing describes the preferred candidate as someone who can work as an engineer and as a writer:

[A] technical writer with a programmer’s mindset, or a programmer with a record of producing excellent documentation.

Because the developer experience is so important in this industry, these technical writing positions prefer candidates who can work in the same environment as their audience.

Standard industry tools

The focus in this industry is on “Docs as Code.” Nearly every job listing mentions some aspect of Docs as Code as a required skill.

For example, the majority of listings reference a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) strategy. They require experience with git and GitHub. One job posting lists a job responsibility as “engaging with the GitHub community” to develop and improve their documentation. They require that the candidate knows how to use markup languages, like Markdown, and the command line. Another posting lists “XML-based authoring tools” as a desired skill.

The Docs as Code mindset has a heavy influence on this industry. So, it follows that so many job postings require some experience with a Docs as Code workflow.

Common themes among real-world practitioners

In general, these positions favor candidates that have strong writing skills and relevant experience as a software developer. According to LinkedIn, most writers have experience with Docs as Code tools, like Markdown, git, and peer reviews. Many have previous experience as software developers and engineers.

Wrap up

My target industry, cloud computing and infrastructure, has a heavy bent towards programmer writers. The most in-demand tools are markup languages, version control systems, and peer reviews. This helps their technical writers work along side their programmer audience, often using the same tools.

Fortunately, my portfolio project aligns well with this technical writer profile. I wrote my documents in Markdown and HTML, and I used GitHub as my version control system. This kind of example shows how comfortable I am working in the environments that these jobs advertise.