How To Get Hired As A Tech Writer With Sue Brandt The Not-Boring Tech Writer podcast

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How to get hired as a tech writer with Sue Brandt

5d ago 41:25

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In this episode, I’m talking with Sue Brandt, a former Director of Documentation who’d hired around 60 people when we recorded the episode. We discuss practical strategies for technical writing job applications, what hiring managers are really looking for in resumes and interviews, and how to stand out in today’s competitive job market.

Sue and I discuss various aspects of the tech writing job application process, including resumes, cover letters, and interviews. Sue, who has hired around 60 people throughout her career, emphasizes that enthusiasm is often a key differentiator for candidates.

Throughout the episode, Sue shares practical tips based on her experience managing tech writing teams of up to 30 people, including ways to stand out as an applicant, how to handle situations where you may not have the exact technical skills in a job description but can demonstrate transferable skills and a willingness to learn, resume and portfolio best practices, how to honestly address gaps in employment, and more. The episode concludes with a discussion of career transitions and the importance of being open to learning new things.

About Sue Brandt

Sue was educated as a biologist, did postdoc research into marine microorganisms, and named 13 new species! She moved a little closer to the tech field when she worked with computer scientists on a bioinformatics project and found herself in the role of "translator" between computer scientists and biologists. Her tech writing career unofficially started when someone looked over her shoulder when she was job searching and said "You could do that.” Sue worked as a Technical Writer at a UK startup for 3 years, then moved to Denmark and worked at Microsoft for 13 years as a Programming Writer and then Developer Documentation Manager. She was always adamant that she didn't want to be a manager, but she was persuaded to try it and found out she loved it! She became Director of Documentation at Sitecore and managed 30 writers, editors, and developers working on 10 different products in 6 countries.

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Transcript

Kate Mueller: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community.

Kate Mueller: [00:00:18] Hello my lovely fellow not-boring tech writers. I'm Kate Mueller and today's guest, I have to say, also has a storied past. I love interviewing people who got into tech writing by accident after they did something else. And today's guest definitely qualifies as that. She was educated as a biologist and did post-doc research, and then slowly moved into bioinformatics before ending up in tech writing, and then also ended up being a people manager at some point in there. Lots of unexpected twists and turns, and you know how much I love a good, not boring, 'twisty and turny' story. I'm very excited to welcome to the pod today, Sue Brandt. Sue, welcome!

Sue Brandt: [00:01:00] Hi! Thanks very much, it's great to be here. I'm looking forward to the talk.

Kate Mueller: [00:01:04] So excited to have you. For our listeners, I just spoiled a little of it I think, but can you give us your tech writer villain origin story? How did you get into tech writing in the beginning?

Sue Brandt: [00:01:16] I'm wondering, is there anyone who actually planned to be in tech writing from early on? It seems like everyone just falls into it by strange and wonderful means. I've heard all sorts of stories. My story is that I was looking for a new role. I was doing post-doc research and I enjoyed it, but it was really stressful to have to keep applying for new grants and not knowing if you still had a job in a few months. I had no idea what I wanted to do instead. I was looking at everything within about a 40 kilometer radius from my home. Someone was looking over my shoulder and pointed to something and said, you could do that.

Kate Mueller: [00:01:50] The infamous tech writer "oh, you could do that". Lo and behold, you could do that and you did.

Sue Brandt: [00:01:55] I was super lucky because the hiring manager was somebody who took a chance on me. I was writing about how you use software to program hardware, and I didn't know anything about software or hardware or tech writing, but somehow she twigged that I might be good at this and gave me a chance. So as I say, I was super lucky.

Kate Mueller: [00:02:18] This makes me really love that we're trying to talk about how you get hired today, because it's funny how those little moments of somebody maybe taking a chance on you ended up into something that worked as a career. I have a similar thing about getting into software in general. I was teaching college level writing for a while, I got burnt out on it, and I took this temp job at a call center. As a result of that, I ended up teaching myself database design and architecture, which led me more into the technical realm and ultimately led me into tech writing, among other things. But it was just a complete accident. It was just like, I don't know what to do right now so I'm going to take this totally random job that I'm not totally sure I'm good at, but I'm just going to do it for a while. Then it gradually built into something completely unexpected. Along the way, I've definitely had a couple managers who were like, you don't seem exactly qualified for this, but I believe you could do it. In your case, you're not currently working as a tech writer, so I'm going to tweak a couple of the questions that I normally ask folks. For everyone listening, you will recognize that these are slightly different from normal. One of the questions I do typically ask, is 'tech writer' the best role title to use for this? We've had some folks who prefer documentarians. We have some folks who align more with software or product documentation. I specifically wanted you on here because I was like, I need somebody who's actually managed other people, who has been through the hiring process, who can speak to some of this a bit. Does 'tech writer' play well on the resume front, on the highlighting skill front? Are there phrases or words people should be using that ar...

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