It's been a couple weeks since I made the decision to transition into technical writing and it’s been quite the experience navigating this beginner phase. Learning a new skill or starting a new career is anything but easy. It may be easy to fantasize about the perks of the job, but the grunt work of spending time to train and gain experience that’ll get you from beginner to professional, is hardly a walk in the park.

I decided to make this shift in my career because I desired to widen my scope as a writer and delve into writing for tech. Save for the routine navigation of WordPress admin pass on a website, (which I highly consider to be transferable credit for a degree in computer science joke), I have no back ground in tech. And so I was seeking a writing role that would require minimal coding skills, which led me Technical writing. I’m currently taking some courses and have a few more months to go on this journey, however I would like to share 2 major steps I have taken that have helped me on my way to becoming a highly skilled, well paid technical writer.

• Start with Research

Learning a new skill for me always begins with researching free resources and I usually begin on YouTube because I pick up things faster when I watch or listen. In this case I searched YouTube for as many videos as I could find on Technical Writing. Paying special care to use key phrases such as ‘beginner level’ and ‘introduction’. From this search, I found helpful channels like Tech Writer HQ which had introductory videos on the very basics of Technical writing. Here I found out what technical writing really was (in practice), the types of documents a technical writer would usually work on, and also got answers to questions like, ‘Do I need to be a developer be a technical writer?’, ‘How much does a technical writer earn?’ Etc. Research demystified these things for me.

• Develop a Road map

This research helped me draw up a realistic, practical and detailed road map for my journey into tech writing. I found this to be important to track my journey. I designed a plan (with timeframes) to take courses, learn important tools, booth camps, internships and certification courses that would help me. One of the resources I’ve come across is Hashnode’s Technical Writing Booth camp 1, on YouTube. I follow the classes and take full advantage of the writing prompts to develop myself. Another important part of my road map was to update my profile online to reflect my career transition and also build portfolio. So I spent some time updating my profile on linked in and searching for Industry professionals to follow and groups to join. I also found useful platforms for building material for my portfolio, one of which was creating a hasnode.dev blog.

Let me just say, that this is the point where you really start to ask yourself whether you still have an interest in continuing with your chosen path. I’m currently at this point. I’m learning more and more about the requirements for this new career and I’m more aware of the dearth of experience I lack. What’s helping me stay grounded is my ‘why’. I constantly remind myself why I decided to make the switch to Tech. And remind myself of the goal I’m trying to achieve also. Then I get back on the saddle. This road map I have come up with keeps me grounded and helps me stayed disciplined.

While so much more can be said, these are two main things I have done that have helped and continue to help me on this journey. An excellent rule of thumb to remember is that genuine interest and talent can be great advantages, however staying patient and consistent is the doubtless propeller that'll push you forward in your learning process. So cheers to staying consistent!