Printer-friendly version

As a technical writer by profession, with myriad experience in writing for the IT industry, I strongly believe that IT-based documentation is an upcoming domain where more and more people should venture. In this blog post, I intend to share my observations on where and how writers with a technical bent of mind can be a part of and contribute to the IT-outsourcing revolution in India.

Most job-portals and career counseling sites can provide information on the required qualifications of aspiring candidates and throw light on desired skills and role challenges. In this post, you can find a brief overview of the available writing related profiles in IT-based organizations.

Typically, an IT-company will have the need for the following resource pool:

1. Technical Writers
2. Content Managers
3. Marketing and Business Communication writers
4. eLearning professionals
5. Graphic Designers
6. Process documentation writers
7. Editors and Reviewers
8. Project Managers

Here’s an overview of the activity performed by each of these role bearers:

Technical Writers usually create or work on:

• Online Help – HTML and Web Help
• User Manuals – PDF and printed documentation
• Technical Papers
• Technical and Design Specifications
• Installation and Configuration Guides
• Release Notes
• Error messages, instructions, copyright statements and other content included in the software interface

Content Managers are responsible for:
• Legacy content conversion
• Content editing and formatting for internal as well as external documents
• Proof reading and peer reviews
• Templates for Presentations, Technical Documents, Proposals, Quality, Testing etc
• Style Guides

Marketing and Business Communication writers provide valuable support to an organizations marketing team by consolidating information for and creating professional documents, such as:
• Proposals
• Presentations
• Case Studies
• White Papers and Brochures
• Sales Portal Content Management
• Research Papers and Reviews

eLearning is a fast developing domain in the writer’s area of work and includes creating content for and designing and developing:
• Web-based Trainings (WBT)
• Computer-based Trainings (CBT)
• Instructor-led Trainings (ILT)
• Training Collaterals
– Student guide
– Instructor guide
– Setup instructions

While Graphic Designing is a specialized profession and does not necessarily come in the purview of writers, however, Graphic Designers can provide valuable inputs to an organization’s documentation in the form of:
• Technical Illustrations
• Website graphics
• Animations and simulations
• Application UI design
• Software interface graphics

Process documentation writers are involved with the organization’s HR, Finance, and Quality Assurance teams (to name a few) and typically assist in documenting, reviewing and updating:
• Quality Management System
• Policies and Procedures

Editors and Reviewers, as the name suggest can help in all forms of document editing and ensure that documents are grammatically correct and meet global industry standards. While you may become a peer reviewer even in the initial stages of your writing career, an Editor is usually a person with years of writing and reviewing experience. Reviewers may just correct the language, grammar, formats and styles, but Editors have a significant role in deciding the presentation and final content of the document.

Project Managers. Yes, you read it right. Over a period of time, writers become an invaluable information pool of knowledge about IT-based processes, procedures, issues, and specific technical and functional domains. They can easily rise up the corporate ladder into the field of Project Management, with ample opportunity for client, customer and senior management interaction. Good communication skill, which comes naturally to most writers, becomes an important asset in their career development.

So, if you want to be a part of the IT-revolution, and if you wondered how the writer in you would fit into the engineers’ world, you just found a whole lot of avenues that need your talent.