How to Create and Deliver Intelligent Information
By

Series: In Love with my IT Job

In our series, people from different age and professional groups introduce us to their IT jobs. Beginners, students or people with quite long working experience share their motivation and recommendations, confirming prejudices or invalidating them.

Today, we talked with Yordan Georgiev from Bulgaria who works as a Senior Technical Writer at VMware. His career path started when he came across a technical writing job ad that caught his attention. Five years later, he decided to take the tekom training and get officially certified as a Technical Writer.

We are curios to know, what makes him love his job …

1. Is there a “typical Technical Writer” for you?

Yordan: I wouldn’t say there is “a typical Technical Writer”. Technical Writers are also known as Information Developers, Content Developers, and Technical Communicators, to name a few. Your role, job title, and tasks vary greatly from company to company. For example, a writer in a small startup is often a “one man show”, while a writer in a big corporation is a part of a very large team and has a much more specific profile.

However, one trait all writers share is curiosity. Trying to figure out how stuff works and the “a-ha” moments when you reach an insight – this is what all writers share.

2. Please introduce us to your job.
Describe a typical working day, starting after you´ve enjoyed your first coffee..

Yordan: A typical working day starts with reading emails and prioritizing my daily tasks. My tasks vary with the different stages of the product development.  At the beginning of the release cycle, I read engineering documents and functional specifications in order to plan my work. At the next stage, I update and create new content. Then comes the review cycle where I incorporate the feedback I receive from the subject matter experts, and finally I publish the documents live online.

3. Have you always wanted to be in this profession? What made you want to become a Technical Writer?

Yordan: I did not plan to become a technical writer. Actually, I did not even have an idea that such a profession existed. I was looking for a job change when I came across a technical writer job ad, and I thought ‘Hmm, this looks interesting’. I have always been fascinated by technology, although I have studied linguistics and psychology in university. Technical writing seemed a perfect blend: you get paid to play with new things, learn how they work, and practice your language skills. Of course, I later found out that it is all that and much more.

4. What surprised you in this profession?

Yordan: Before I began working as a technical writer I imagined that I would spend most of my time on the job writing, that is creating new content. Actually, most of the time I have to gather pertinent information from stakeholders and other sources, and then analyze and synthesize it. Probably, less than 20% of my time on the job is actually writing.

5. What advice do you have for those who want to go in the same direction?

Yordan: Just take the chance – it is worth it! You will be amazed by how many new things and skills you will learn.

 

Yordan is one of the persons who accomplished the TCTrainNet program. It is an international training and certification program in Technical Communication, managed by tcworld and can also be used as a preparation course for the international tekom certification.

Get an insight into the TCTrainNet program and visit the online platform or broaden your skills with Learning Nuggets – it is all about Technical Communication.

Series: In Love with my IT Job

 

 

Like it? Share it! Spread the Word...

Sag uns jetzt deine Meinung per Kommentar!