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To apply for a technical writer position, along with the right qualifications, you’ll need a resume that pays the same attention to detail that you put into your work. To help you with this, we have created a step-by-step guide with resume examples for your understanding.
Check out more of our downloadable resume examples designed by career experts and use one of our free and premium resume templates today!
Technical Writer Resume
This technical writer resume example will help you understand how to format and write each section of your resume.
Give your resume the right professional feel and follow these pointers:
Sky's the Limit
Subtle Creativity
Writing a resume without the proper preparation might seem overwhelming. However, to turn it into a smooth process, we have provided a few tips to equip you with all the necessary tools and information required to succeed.
We recommend you invest some time to understand the following steps:
Resume formats will determine what sections to highlight depending on your amount of skills, expertise, work experience and qualifications. You’ll need to choose between the three main formats: chronological, functional, and combination.
Candidates with an extensive career of more than ten years can benefit from the chronological format’s focus on work experience.
The functional format works best for applicants who have little to no professional experience and focuses on their skills instead.
Candidates looking for a change in career or growth in their profession should consider the combination format that highlights their experience and skills in a balanced way.
Go through our resume formats guide to know more about each resume type.
Chronological
Functional
Combination
"How do I start my resume?" "What do I write in each section?" If these are some questions bothering you, worry not. We are here to ensure that you know everything about writing an impressive technical writer's resume. You can now easily craft an interview-ready resume with the help of our tips and examples.
1. Write an impressive career objective or summary statement.
The opening statement on your resume is a selling pitch consisting of a summary of your best professional qualifications. You can use two strategies to achieve this: the career objective or the summary statement. We recommend opting for the summary statement for a technical writer's resume as it focuses on how a candidate can meet the employer's requirements for the role. Entry-level professionals, job hoppers or individuals with employment gaps should opt for the career objective.
Let's say you're a seasoned technical writer with plenty of years of experience and a well-rounded skill set looking for a job as a technical writer for a manufacturer of medical equipment. Your summary statement should provide a brief introduction and an overview of your top skills and achievements relevant to this particular role.
Let's compare the following good and bad examples of a summary statement for this hypothetical candidate.
The following summary statement examples will help you know the difference between an appealing and poor secretary resume:
Poor example:
“Technical writer with many years of experience, motivated, self-starter, team player. Skilled in researching and writing for various topics.”
This summary statement leaves a minimal impression on the employer, and it does not communicate much about the applicant's skills, strengths and qualifications relevant to the role.
Good example:
“Creative and skilled Technical Writer with over five years of experience. Expert in researching and writing articles, website content, and social media blogs. Produced over ten instructional manuals and guides for various technological devices. Specialized in writing instruction manuals and guides for medical equipment. Comfortable with engineering, scientific, medical and technical material.”
This summary statement downplays the applicant's lack of experience and projects the candidate as a promising talent by:
Write the ideal summary statement for your resume by following these valuable tips:
Study this summary statement example below:
“Creative and skilled Technical Writer expert in researching and writing articles, website content, and social media blogs with over five years of experience. Accomplished in thorough research and crafting engaging, error-free content. Proficient in spreadsheet management, copyediting, and proofreading.”
2. Create a diverse list of your skills.
Every resume must have at least one section of six to eight skills. However, you can feature more in other sections by slipping them into the content of your work history and professional summary.
Chronological resumes have a dedicated skills section, but functional and combination resumes can have multiple. Since the focus of the functional resume are the skills, it includes a main section that includes three skills followed by explanatory bullet points. Each bullet point elaborates on tasks and accomplishments that showcase your expertise.
Take a look at the example below for an improved understanding:
Skills
Web Content Creation
This elaborate skills section communicates in detail about the kind of tasks and responsibilities fulfilled by the candidate, coupled with provable metrics.
You can diversify the skills on your resume by including a good combination of all the three skills types: soft, hard and technical.
Soft skills refer to interpersonal skills that you develop throughout your life, irrespective of the role or industry. A few soft skills necessary for a technical writer are:
Hard skills are primarily related to your job or industry. You can gain hard skills through training or on-the-job experience. Some technical writer hard skills are:
Technical skills determine the way you conduct work using technology and digital tools. A technical writer can include the following technical skills:
You will discover more job-specific skills for technical writers in our Resume Builder. Our resume-writing tool will also provide pre-written suggestions based on the position you are looking for that you can easily include in your resume.
The work history section provides information on your work experiences in reverse-chronological order. You should list your job title, name of the workplace, location and dates of employment.
On a chronological and combination resume, each entry elaborates tasks and accomplishments with bulleted phrases. However, a functional resume does not elaborate further.
Here are two examples of poor and good work history to help you write this section effectively.
Poor example:
Work History
This work history entry fails to provide enough details about the volume or tasks accomplished or the candidate's skills. It fails to impress the employer without any quantifiable achievements or abilities.
Good example:
Work History
This work history entry has a much more comprehensive overview of the candidate's professional capabilities. It becomes more awe-inspiring with quantifiable achievements and skills acquired throughout specific job duties mentioned.
If you want to write an effective work history section, follow these tips:
Your education section contains information about your degree, the institution's name, its location and dates of graduation.
Candidates aspiring to build a career in technical writing should consider earning a Bachelor's degree in journalism or technical communications. Furthermore, you can take up technical writing courses, available both online and offline, to learn skills such as: writing, designing, basic computer skills among others.
Technical writers can also find a mentor to provide guidance and practical experience. You can specialize in one particular area, such as electronics or software.
You can add an extra section to your resume for listing relevant certifications, licenses or training you've acquired.
Certifications a technical writer should have are:
Technical Writing
Develop your writing skills through this certificate course by completing practical technical writing projects.
Technical writing: How to Write Software Documentation
This is an excellent course on technical writing if you want to work on documentation through various software applications.
Project Management for Technical Writers
Make your software documentation delivery successful through this certificate course for technical writers. It requires prior experience in technical writing.
Consider the following training courses throughout your technical writing career:
Your contact information should be practical and straightforward. Add your full name, the city and state you're based, your phone number and your professional email address.
Use these free downloadable technical writer templates on the word processor of your choice. You can edit these templates and complete your resume with the help of our guide.
The skills required for a technical writer vary as technology keeps expanding every day. However, technical writing shares specific skills across various levels. Every technical writer should develop these top three skills: excellent writing skills, thorough research skills and editing skills.
Apart from having excellent research and writing skills, you should be consistent, accurate and an expert in the field of technology, science and engineering.
An excellent objective statement should communicate what you wish to achieve in your role. For example, a compelling statement for a technical writer for a cybersecurity company could read something like: "brings over five years of experience as a cybersecurity technical writer, skilled in research and content creation." Include what you can offer the employer or company and how you can become a more efficient technical writer.
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