With path-breaking advancements and technological products, the need for technical writers is deemed to witness a vertical rise in 2022.
While the West is already accustomed to technical writing as a career, India is slowly and gradually progressing on the trail of embracing it as a full-time career opportunity. As for the metropolitan cities with IT hubs, the demand for technical writers is manifold. However, technical writing is not only confined to the IT sector; domains such as engineering, electrical, medical, aeronautical, biotechnology, finance and almost every other industry are focused on technical writing to create a vivid brand image.
An Overview: Technical Writing
A technical writer is a proficient writer with the prowess to mould complex content in a precise, compact, and comprehensive manner. Formerly, technical writing was restrained to instructional guides and manuals, however, the boundaries have broadened over the years. Now, everything from how-to-guides to journals to instruction manuals to end-user documentation – all of it comes under the umbrella term technical writing.
The Technical Writing Industry
The ingrained acceptance of technical writing as a career in India has opened up new avenues to the technical writing industry. Digitalization, internet penetration, and the hard-hit pandemic world have set the stage for the accelerated growth of technical writing.
The ever-increasing demand for technical writers has induced institutions to propel specialised courses in technical writing to bridge the skill gap for the industry requirements. Consequently, institutes are offering job-oriented skill-driven courses to impart the finesse and aptitude required to flag a technical writer job.
Requisite Skills and Software
Technical writing doesn’t demand any specific degree or diploma; people from all walks of life can jump in for this course. All one needs is a strong command of English (both verbal and written), an earnest interest in technical innovations and updates, determination to research, and hard work. Offsetting the same, IT background, mass communication, or English Honours degrees can be added benefits, but never a mandate.
Technical writing course is many things, yet the most crucial aspect that takes the center stage of the course is to impart the art of transforming technical notions into layman’s terms. This, in fact, requires a handful of research through papers, reports, and essays. Besides arises the need to understand the usage of various softwares and tools to quicken the process, which technical writing courses expose to the prospective technical writers. RoboHelp, MS Visio, Photoshop, Snag IT are a few of the many tools that validate the technical writing process.
Scope and Career Prospects
The viable dependency on technological innovations and solutions has prepared the ground for technical writing as a prominent career field. Day in and day out, people are dependent on technological and scientific tools and software, which calls for technical guides, instructions, manuals, documentation, and more of that sort!
The technical industry is booming more than ever because technical writing has become a necessity rather than an option for organisations. Companies are bound to spend a fare-share on high-quality content to put their word forward to the target audience.
Additionally, technical writing has become a gateway to perpetual career prospects, like telecommunications, academics, advertising, publishing, to name a few! With varied career prospects and laser-sharp growth, technical writing is a realistic career option in India and across the globe.