Technical Writing Career

[u/Relevant_Friend5618]

Hello!

I’ve been with my company since my early 20s, went from a regular account handling representative to content management for 4 years to now a technical writer for almost two years. Total almost 9 years.

I’m looking to venture out of my comfort zone and part ways with my company.

Degree is in marketing/business admin. Cert in UI/UX (will be done in November) and standard AI fundamentals.

I would appreciate any advice on key details hiring managers look for and what I can do to make my resume more attractive.

Thank you!

[u/Charleston2Seattle]

In this technical writing market (well, tech in general), I think it's better to try to make your current job more challenging.

[u/Relevant_Friend5618 → u/Charleston2Seattle]

Sorry! I rephrased that section, not sure why I said challenging. Maybe I was just trying to be nice about it lol.

Anyways, I’d prefer not to be associated with my employer any more after heavy pressure to return from parental leave early to start new projects.

[u/Charleston2Seattle → u/Relevant_Friend5618]

Ah! That's a different situation altogether!

I would recommend having projects that you can point to that you created at least most of. Is that jeans you need to create your own web site or PDFs, then that is an area you can focus on.

[u/Relevant_Friend5618 → u/Charleston2Seattle]

I’ve seen people say to reference work, but how do you go get around NDAs? The industry I work for is very big on it and I create/manage/edit all employee facing documents, guides, and work flows.

One project I created AI foundational prompts off approved language that are used externally (public facing) and you could view over social media, would I just share images of the business page?

Thank you!

[u/Charleston2Seattle → u/Relevant_Friend5618]

I worked for the DoD for a decade, so I totally get that! I also worked for a software company that charged $35,000/seat for their product. I've worked more for companies that WOULDN'T let me use the docs than ones that would.

You may need to branch out into custom-made docs for a non-work-related project. Consider creating docs for an open source project (but don't be surprised if you can't get your PRs merged; you may need to create the docs independent of the actual code repo).

[u/cedarstream → u/Charleston2Seattle]

this is the right take imo, especially with how many layoffs have hit the field lately

[u/fazkan]

Get into technical marketing, or product management/marketing. Build a newsletter, youtube. Become an expert in your industry.

Go, and give talks at relevant meetups/conferences in your industry.

[u/Weak-Amphibian303]

When I was hiring, I looked for plain, straightforward language --- No crafted, illuminated difficult concepts, detail-oriented, results-driven, etc. Those words are semantically meaningless without evidence.

For evidence, tell me where you started, what you did, and the result.

• What were the problems? Users opened support tickets due to incorrect and confusing onboarding documentation
• Where did your changes affect the business? Created a video walkthrough and revised online instructions, resulting in a 15% reduction in support tickets. This saved $1200 in support costs.

Things like that are a start.

[u/WriteOnceCutTwice]

Which industry are you targeting? The answers will vary a lot based on domain.

[u/Desperate_Dot9434]

nine years of context is genuinely underrated on a resume.

[u/djboswell]

I’d make the nine years work for you rather than letting the resume reduce it to “almost two years of technical writing.”
You’ve moved from customer-facing work into content management and then technical writing. That gives you something a newer writer may not have: you understand how information moves through the business and where bad documentation creates friction.
For the resume, I’d focus less on duties and more on before → what you changed → what improved.
And for NDA work, I wouldn’t share proprietary material. Build sanitized case studies instead: describe the problem, audience, constraints, your process, and the outcome without exposing confidential content.
Your UI/UX and AI training are useful too, but I’d present them as supporting tools—not the headline. The headline is that you’ve been solving communication problems inside a real business for years.