What a non-linear career path can look like for a technical writer. What side projects are, how they contribute to your career development, and how you can build side projects into your technical writing day job.

1. Non-linear career path of a
technical writer
WTD Meetup
London, June 2018
@dianallogan ● #writethedocs

2. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
• Product Docs Manager @Citrix
• Science Park, Cambridge UK
• Global team of technical writers
• Technical content and user interface text
• Co-organizer of WTD Cambridge meetup

3. • Non-linear career paths
@dianallogan ● #writethedocs
• Side projects - in your day job

4. @dianallogan ● #writethedocsImage: 2012 http://www.businessinsider.com/what-success-looks-like-2012-4?IR=T attribution Babs Rangalah (tweet 2012)
and Demetri Martin “This is a book” (2011)

5. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
non-linear Not progressing in a single series of
steps or stages

6. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
“My career has not been a straight line. My career has
been more of zig zag.
It enabled me to develop a perspective, not just around
my particular area of expertise, but to see things from
other people's points of view.”
- Vince Forlenza, President and CEO, BD
https://hbr.org/2012/03/in-praise-of-non-linear-career, https://hbr.org/2012/07/why-i-like-people-with-unconve
“Non-linear job changes can tell a lot about several
powerful emotional intelligence-based competencies —
flexibility, adaptability, empathy, organizational
awareness and relationship management”
- Claudio Fernández-Aráoz,
Executive fellow at Harvard Business School

7. @dianallogan ● #writethedocshttps://forum.academica.ca/forum/why-non-linear-is-the-only-career-path-forward
“Career paths just aren’t the same anymore.
Having a multi-pronged approach to career building is an absolute necessity
today: where you build the resiliency to switch careers when
you’re forced to, and the confidence to switch when you want to.”
- Matthew Thomas, co-author, The Gifts of Breadth 2016

8. Is this what a non-linear career path of a
technical writer looks like?
@dianallogan ● #writethedocs

9. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
Non-linear technical writing career path
Software Consulting and Training Technical Writer
Information Developer
courseware development training videos
leading change

10. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
side project
Side projects allow you to experience
and learn new things that your daily
work might not
https://facilethings.com/blog/en/side-projects @francisojsaez

11. Side projects work best when…
@dianallogan ● #writethedocs
things you enjoy marketable skill
Julie Zhou, product design VP at Facebook
https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/the-importance-of-side-projects-cf9f63954031

12. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
examples

13. Example #1: “My most important deliverable”
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Lesia Zasadna – WTD Prague 2016 - https://youtu.be/vhaQjJcfq5M?t=22m34s

14. Example #2: Using infographics in technical communication
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Agnieszka Tkaczyk - https://www.slideshare.net/aga_tkaczyk/infographics-in-technical-communication-43915975

15. Example #3: Virtual crash course in Design Thinking
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https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources-collections/a-virtual-crash-course-in-design-thinking

16. @dianallogan ● #writethedocs
• Be opportunistic
• Be realistic
• Have fun
things you enjoy marketable skill
Fill a knowledge
gap, meeting a
need
@ work
Choosing a side project at work

17. Side projects with a good fit to tech writing
@dianallogan ● #writethedocs
• Terminology and naming
• Newsletters
• User research
• Workshops
• Website
• Intranet
• Customer events
• Recruitment
• Training
• …

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Summary