Building your Portfolio - Part 2

If you are planning to shape your career as a freelance writer or actively searching a full time position, you may want to employ a broader paradigm to your portfolio. More often than not, recruiters and interviewers look for web presence that helps them understand candidate’s writing skills. So, instead of highlighting your Facebook or Twitter page, you may demonstrate your skills by your blog or website.

 

There are many things you can add to your blog or website apart from your resume. For example,

1. You can put samples of your portfolio on your website. You have better chances of showing your versatility as a website does not limit you to submit limited samples (as most interview sessions do). For more about samples, see Building your Portfolio -1.
2. You can generate HTML help pages (using RoboHelp or Flare) for demonstrating your knowledge of tools.
3. Emphasize that you are aware of latest trends in the technical communication by building articles on the topics that you have studied or have come across on the forums and other blogs (Please create original content from the knowledge you have gathered. Plagiarism is simply unacceptable for writers.)
4. You can add samples of eLearning videos to your website as well. One of the innovative ways of creating eLearning videos can be the walk-through of your own website. You can create a small tutorial showing how someone can optimally find information on your website.
5. You can also create generic user documentation templates like user guide, online help, table of contents, index, glossary, etc.

 Other General Tips: 

• Try to keep your portfolio relevant and updated. 
• Study your portfolio thoroughly. You can be thrown any question based on it. 
• Never reveal proprietary information in your portfolio. If you insist on it, always seek prior permission from the content owners.
• Always try to keep your website organized and clutter free.
• Your blog should be categorized well so that the reader can find relevant information easily.

Please leave your comments so that I can keep improving this blog.

Building your Portfolio - Part 1

Before you go out and start looking for a job as a technical writer, you should be in a position to demonstrate your skills. With the amount of knowledge you have gathered, it is advisable to create a portfolio which helps the employers understand your potential in the field of technical writing.


You can provide various forms of documents in a portfolio, viz. user manuals (steps to solve a particular problem), online help, few technical articles, and video tutorials. This allows the employer to know your versatility and skill set.

There are number of ways in which you can create your portfolio:

Writing help on familiar tasks

You can start building your portfolio writing about familiar tasks like “How to withdraw money from ATM” or “Steps to create a blog”. Utilize your existing knowledge effectively to cover steps required to complete a specific task. Though this is considered a primitive method, writing about known tasks help you in explaining information cleanly.

Working for a non-profit organization

Another effective way of creating a portfolio is volunteering to write for a non-profitable organization. The content you have created can be directly used in a portfolio. Generally, there are no proprietary information issues, but it is still recommended that you get a confirmation from the organization.

Writing help for mobile app

With the advent of smart phones, there is a large mobile application database on the internet. For most of these apps, there is not much help available. Though, these applications are relatively simpler to use, you can still create help for them and demonstrate your skills. It is surely a nice value add to your portfolio.

In addition to the above methods, learn technical documentation tools that facilitate content creation and publishing your documents. To know more about the list of documentation tools available, see Technical Writers toolbox.

The best way to learn a tool is to download its trial version. There are a lot of online resources available over the internet. You can learn and use these tools to generate PDF and HTML output for your portfolio. Such portfolios have multiple advantages as they demonstrate your ability in content creation as well as tools.

The next post covers creating your blog or website as a portfolio.

The Tipping Point – Global Audience

If you have been following this blog and are searching for global resources to make a great career in technical writing, this post would help you understand from where can you start.

It would be really good if you can find a renowned local institution for technical writing in or near your city (It would be difficult for me to jot to three best schools at every location :) ). But, the most prevalent method of learning is taking online courses. These courses are a good way to start off your knowledge exercise.

I would briefly provide a list of top three types of online courses I have heard of:

1. Utah State University
2. Webster Tech Writers
3. Technical Writers Block  

Apart from these institutes, Internet has a huge pool of informative blogs and websites by international authors. These writers have vast experience in technical communication and provide all the latest updates in the market.

Here are few of the free resources you can start with:  

• http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Technical_writing
• http://www.twin-india.org/TWIN_Book.chm
• http://www.twin-india.org/TWIN_Book2.chm
• http://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/

Along with the learning, the best way to understand technical documentation is working on a freelancing project or getting employment. So, the next post would be how to get into the market with your acquired skills.

P.S. This post is dedicated to the global audience. The Indian enthusiasts, please refer to the previous post.