“So, what even is a technical writer?” It’s a question I get asked frequently whenever friends and relatives come to visit. And it’s understandable—technical writing isn’t all that well-known as far as popular careers go. When I do tell people about my work, most are shocked to learn that my job isn’t writing furniture assembly manuals.
Technical writing positions can differ greatly based on the industry you’re in and the size of your company, but the overall idea is the same. Our job is to take complex and jargon-heavy information and transform it into content that anyone could understand. We’re tasked with anything from writing how-to guides and software documentation all the way to creating graphics and tutorial videos. And if the content is about a field you enjoy, your work can actually be exciting!
An example of an interesting tech writer job I applied for was with Tesla; the position entailed working with automotive engineers to write and design user manuals. The technical writer’s job was to talk with engineers and learn everything there is to know about the latest Tesla models so that they can pass that information down to consumers. So if you love cars and Tesla in particular, it’d pretty much be a dream job!
So before you write off technical writing as boring, think about any interests you have that you would love to dive deep into. You could be writing for a gaming company or tech giant—the possibilities are practically infinite!
That being said, personally I work for a large financial institution and get to learn about the payments industry. Here’s what a typical day looks like for me:
9am
The first thing I do each day is fire up my laptop to check emails and Microsoft Teams. I skim through them and flag any important emails that I don’t want to respond to just yet. I also check my Outlook calendar to see what, if any, meetings I have scheduled for the day.
Next, I take care of any housekeeping tasks I have while my morning coffee wakes me up. For any flagged emails I gather the necessary information to update them on whatever project they are inquiring about. Any task that I can do in less than ten minutes gets done now.
Lastly, I make a mental note of what it is I want to work on today before blocking out time for each longer task in Outlook. This way I never waste time thinking about what I should be working on, especially when I’m managing several projects at once.
10am
Now that I’ve got a plan and I’ve finished my coffee, I get to work on one of my projects. This one in particular has me putting together a quarterly release guide. I open our content management system (CMS) and find the files I need. I also open up the team wiki so I can find our team’s notes.
Using the information on our wiki, as well as any personal notes I’ve taken during 1-on-1’s, I begin working on outlining all of the new features that will be added in our next release. I end up having a question about which regions a certain menu option will be implemented for, so I send a note to the project manager in charge of that particular feature.
Once I’m done, I save my work and plan to revisit it once I get an answer to my question.
12pm
After a two hour focus session, it’s time to eat! Since I work from home, I can prepare myself something in the kitchen. But usually I take my break to go for a twenty minute walk around the neighborhood to get the blood flowing and escape the apartment for a bit.
Today I walk past the large pond behind my apartment complex and watch the geese. The weather’s nice for this time of year so I pass by a lot of dog walkers. After a full loop around the water, I head back and make myself a panini. Nothing beats a fresh, warm lunch at home!
12:30pm
When I return to my desk I see I’ve gotten a reply to my question. I thank the project manager for getting back so quickly before updating the release guide. He also sent over a couple of graphics that the team wants included, so I scrub them for any personal information, do some minor edits, and add them to the guide.
1pm
There’s a guest speaker presenting on behalf of a women in technology group. We have different employee resource groups that we can subscribe to, ranging from LGBT to young professionals. I’m a part of a women in tech resource group so I decide to attend the live speaker event.
The talk is broadcasted over Microsoft Teams and I listen to the speaker talk about her career journey as she simultaneously navigated the challenges of motherhood. I stay for a few minutes of Q&A but soon need to leave for my next meeting.
2pm
Today is my once a week 1-on-1 with my boss. We start off praising the lovely weather we’ve been having before I launch into a recap of the week since we last spoke. There aren’t many major updates this week, but I do mention an observation I had about our cross-functional team meeting last week. We spend the rest of the hour discussing ways to improve communication with the teams that don’t operate within our department.
3pm
After a meeting and speaker event, I feel I’ve hit my afternoon slump. I take a few minutes to stretch and walk around the apartment before making myself a cup of tea. The short break gives me another burst of energy and I return to my desk to get started on some edits that another team requested. Their list of changes to be made is thorough so I’m able to quickly get through them and send off the revised copy for review.
4pm
Finally, the last hour of the day! Since I’m ahead of schedule on my most important tasks, I decide to spend the last hour on self-improvement. My company provides all employees with a free library of thousands of courses, books, and videos on a variety of topics. I made it my goal to learn more about how our core business functions work, so I continue watching a course about the impact of cryptocurrency on the payments industry. I take notes as I go along to help myself better remember what I’m learning.
5pm
And we’re done! I save any open files before shutting down my laptop for the night. On rare occasions I’ll have a meeting outside of my regular working hours when I’m working with a team in a different time zone. On days like that, I either leave early or come in later the next day so that I don’t work more than 8 hours a day.
My company values work-life balance so we’re able to change our schedules as needed to accommodate. In the summertime we even get half-day Fridays to go enjoy the weekend early. It’s the little things like these that make me love working here as a technical writer and make me feel excited to go to work every morning 🙂
Interested in Learning About How Much Tech Writers Get Paid?
Check out my article on the Technical Writing profession as a whole!