by Emily Cotlier

I'm a technical writer working in New Zealand, and my jobs here have sent me to Singapore and Australia. When I told my friends and acquaintances that I was planning on moving from the United States, where I had lived all my life, to another country, their responses ranged from disbelief to envy. One person asked me, "Is that actually possible?" Others confessed that they didn't even have a passport.

Over time, I've found that many technical writers working in the Pacific Rim are expatriates from the United States, Europe, and India. In this era of globalization, many others are interested in exploring opportunities in different countries, or accompanying a spouse who is posted abroad. This article offers advice on finding technical writing jobs abroad, setting your own expectations for the new work environment, and getting involved in your new culture and country. It is based on my own experiences as an American expatriate working abroad, and on conversations with other expatriate technical writers. Although many of the examples are based on my own experiences, the information and advice can be applied to anyone seeking employment as a technical writer outside of their native country.

by Alice E. Fugate

Question: I love everything about being self-employed--except for waiting to get paid! My paychecks never seem to arrive on time. Sometimes my clients forget to send my invoices to Accounts Payable or the invoices get misplaced; other times the process just bogs down and takes forever. Whatever the reason, I'm stuck waiting for checks that don't come. How can I get my clients to pay on time?

Lay the groundwork for a happy fiscal relationship at the very beginning of each project. A little planning, plus a judicious dose of effective communication, will pave the way for timely payments.

by Eric J. Ray

As a technical writer, are you finding yourself wishing for just a bit of respect from the engineers, SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), or other technical people you work with? Are you finding that these folks seem to stonewall you on every question you have or every goal you're trying to achieve? Are they obstreperous? Difficult? Or just plain unhelpful?

by Liz Russell

If you're a writer like me, news of a fresh assignment brings both excitement and anxiety. New assignments offer opportunities to further our knowledge and expand our portfolios, and they may result in a bonus or a more lucrative contract. But new projects can also inspire angst and dread if you have past experience with projects that involved false starts, unrestrained scope creep, misunderstandings between team members, uncommunicative teammates, or unfamiliar technologies.

If you have experienced professional or having any skill. You can earn a good living as technical writer.

Technical writing donot need to pass any college exam. Any one who can read and write good language can become Technical Writer.

But If you planning to write technical book then it is good thing to first learn the basic principles about the procedures of that instrument.

For quick summary about technical writer visit:

http://technicalwriter-nigam.
blogspot.com.

In my blog I summarize technical writer introduction.

by Judy Fraser, in PDF format
This questionnaire includes questions and issues that should be covered early in a project, including questions about the project, documentation, scheduling, reviews, and administrative tasks. Feel free to add comments and additional notes if you have supplemental suggestions from your experience. Based on the number of requests for this article, it's been useful to many other technical communicators.

Is the siren song of independent contracting luring you away from your captive employment?

It's amazing how quickly time passes. The older you get, the faster it zips by.

Well, it does for me.

Since 2001 I've been a member of the techwr-l list but I didn't notice when the mailings stopped coming in March this year. Too busy with a contract that demanded 100% concentration 100% of the time (talk about brain strain). Patents will do that to you.

So when the contract ended and I had time to sit and think and review my Inbox (12,000+ emails to sort through and file) I suddenly thought: Hey. Where are my techwr-l emails?

Insurance for Contract Technical Writers? - Please forgive me, I know this topic may have been discussed already, but I can't seem to find it. (I was laid off of my "employee" job the last week of July. So, I am looking for, and finding, some 1099 contract work.) One company I am thinking of working... [Live on TECHWR-L]

by Tom Murrell

Consider this: If you want a job, what you need is an interview. I don't know of anyone who has ever submitted a resume and gotten a job offer as a result. The very best you can hope for is that you'll get that call asking you to come in for an interview. It's in the interview that you get the job, not in the resume.

So, your first objective is to land an interview. A simple tool, called a T-letter, can help you do just that. The traditional approach has you developing a standard resume and writing a cover letter to accompany it for every job situation. A T-letter is like a cover letter, except that it doesn't "cover" anything.