I just received the disheartening news of being passed over by Google after making it through several layers of the interview process. This was for a technical writer role with Google AdMob, a major revenue gernerating part of their business. Spending a week or two excitedly daydreaming at the prospect of working for Google was fun. What a career achievement that would’ve been.

For now, it wasn’t meant to be, but what if I use it as motivation to close whatever gaps they identified that led to them moving forward with other candidates? How can someone use this experience to fall forward and become a better candidate?

Fall Forward

First, do not be discouraged. Just to get your resume past the screening software is in itself an achievement. That means your career is on track. The achievements listed on your resume are generating interest, and your resume formatting is doing its job to get your resume seen. This is a good moment to look at your resume with fresh eyes and examine how your information is presented, and proofread for typos or mistakes.

Second, to pass the behavioral assessment screening that you must complete after your resume is identified as a match is another small win. To get to actually speak with a Google recruiter, even better.

See where this is going? You can draw a lot of positives from the process.

So, how far did I make it? Ultimately, after a good discussion with the recruiter who was able to tell me about the position and verify that I was a suitable candidate, I was moved forward to the Writing Sample Submission (Portfolio) stage. This is where I was eliminated from consideration. I must admit, it’s inspired me to put a lot more effort into my portfolio. The competition for these high-level technical writing jobs is fierce, and you cannot rely on your resume alone to land you the job you want. Take a long, hard look at your portfolio and examine whether it’s properly illustrating the type of work you’ve done in your career. The more modern pieces (applications, remote monitoring, programming language) you can include, the better. Also, a big part of the portfolio is how you decide to host and present it. You cannot just have the portfolio piece itself. You need to present it on the web and include description sections explaining what the writing project was, what role you played, the outcome, and the published product/document.

The Plan

What’s next for me? Google Certifications! Specifically, Google AI Essentials and Google UX Design. Aside from my portfolio overhaul, it’s become apparent to me that if I want to get these higher level jobs that I’m after, I’m going to have to learn some new skills and be able to prove that I’ve obtained them.

The big realization? I’m going to have to learn to code. I’m not sure exactly what this means as of yet, but basic API documentation knowledge is a requirement for most of these jobs, and some require a deeper understanding of docs-as-a-code and how python is used in those environments. I’m targeting several certification courses to fill the API gap, and I’ve started to look into coding bootcamps and certification courses. Harvard CS50 seems to be the prescription for someone like myself, so I’ll see if I can get myself through that course, then start looking for formal instruction.

The Metrics

Once you have your vision, you need to have a way to measure your progress. For me, the certification courses are my measuring stick. I’ve already completed a few, I have my target dates for beginning my future certifications, and I’ll keep gathering certifications one-by-one until I have the skills needed to be in the discussion for these jobs.

Time Management and Funding

The way I’m looking at this for myself, if I were currently making 50K/year (I make more, this for the sake of an example), but I want to be in a job where I’m making 150K/year, then I need to have a clear path to get there. The path that I think will do this for me is basically tons of schooling. When paired with my previous success in the TW field, I should be in contention for these 150K jobs.

To me it’s worth it to suspend my job search and go all-in on leveling up my skill set. If I forgo a 50K/year job for a year while I get my skills good enough to land a 150K/year job, then I’ll more than make up for that 50K forfeiture by the time I finish my first year in the 150K job. Understand? This isn’t exactly how I plan to do it. It’s always good to have some income coming in and also to avoid any career gaps, but it’s also clear to me that even in a worst-case scenario where I don’t do any work and only focus on my skill set, I’ll still be on a path that will be building towards a brighter career and a brighter earning potential after I’ve gained the technical knowledge that I’m currently missing.

Once you have access to Google Workspace Labs, you can use some preset templates that will allow you to experiment with Gemini, Google’s AI tool. In Google Docs, I started with a blank document:

Starting with a blank Google Doc, I asked Gemini to help me come up with a plan to run Little League practice.

Gemini came back with the following result:

From here I may wish to create additional prompts like, “make the practice more challenging,” or “add an activity to the end of the practice that promotes teamwork.”

Keep modifying the document until you’re happy with the result. Don’t be afraid to jump in and make your own manual edits.

That’s it. Just a little primer to get you started with Gemini. Sign up to the mailing list for more.

Here’s the rub, I’m a professional technical writer with over a decade of experience working for Fortune 500 companies in the engineering and medical device space. There are a lot of websites dedicated to AI technology discussion, but few (none?) from the viewpoint of technical writers. The goal here will be to document and disuss AI writing topics generally, but also delve into the impacts specifically to the field of professional writing and individual technical writers.

I hope to provide a resource for technical writers looking to prosper in the AI age. If we as writers can embrace the avalanche of technology about to be thrust upon us, we can survive and perhaps even thrive in this new world. Be bold, be open to learning, and let’s get to work!

A blog dedicated to AI writing related topics? Another one!?

Here’s the rub, I’m a professional technical writer with over a decade of experience working for Fortune 500 companies in the engineering and medical device space. There are a lot of websites dedicated to AI technology discussion, but few (none?) from the viewpoint of technical writers. The goal here will be to document and disuss AI writing topics generally, but also delve into the impacts specifically to the field of professional writing and individual technical writers.

I hope to provide a resource for technical writers looking to prosper in the AI age. If we as writers can embrace the avalanche of technology about to be thrust upon us, we can survive and perhaps even thrive in this new world. Be bold, be open to learning, and let’s get to work!

My guess is that before we’re replaced by AI writing robots, there’ll be ample opportunity to find niches in the industry where writers can thrive. Futher, I believe wholeheartedly that there will be a great opportunity to earn more through our specialized technical writing knowledge and experience than we ever thought was possible.

Below is a list of seven recent advances in the field of technical writing that practitioners should be aware of and dig into to become knowledgeable and be able to discuss with other professionals.

1. AI Integration: The integration of AI language models, like ChatGPT, has revolutionized technical writing. These tools assist writers in creating accurate and concise content, enhancing overall efficiency in documentation.

   1. In my personal experience with AI chatbots thus far, they results of different prompts produce lukewarm results. I often find the language that the bots produce to be a word salad, it will look like something, but when you read it, you’ll have no idea what point it’s trying to make. Kind of like texting with my younger sister. However, the AI writing tools and programs have helped me a lot with getting started on a writing piece. Just having the visual aid of formatted, somewhat coherent instructional content is a big help when brainstorming a project. I haven’t found a ton of applicability for AI in user manual writing, but it does excel in brainstorming ideas for conversational writing.

2. Automation Tools: Technical writers are increasingly adopting automation tools and systems. These tools streamline repetitive tasks such as formatting, version control, and content management, allowing writers to focus on producing high-quality material.

   1. Automation falls under XML authoring and desktop publishing templates. These aren’t really new technologies, but they are constantly being improved upon and tweaked. Responsive image mapping in tools like MadCap Flare, using Markdown to create Mermaid Charts, floating/sticky tables of contents auto generated from heading in Zendesk, are all examples of how the hard skills of publishing are advancing for the better, helping both writers and end users alike.

3. Collaboration Across Teams: Technical writing now involves cross-functional collaboration. Writers work closely with engineers, designers, product managers, and other stakeholders to ensure documentation aligns with product development and user needs.

   1. My experience with collaboration tools has greatly evolved since my start in technical writing. Once bound by monster engineering change order databases like Matrix or PDM Windchill, the field has found room for more nimble, modern collaboration tools such as Atlassian Trello, and of course, Jira. SharePoint has also come a long way in this regard, and though often not the first choice of any team, it’s often the ONLY choice allowed by many organizations.

4. User-Centric Approach: The emphasis is on user experience and usability. Clear, concise, and user-friendly content is essential. Technical writers provide step-by-step instructions, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs to enhance usability.

   1. In my relatively short career in technical writing, I’ve seen UX investment explode, though speaking to UX colleagues there’s often a discussion of oversaturation in their job market. Still, I’m upbeat about UX prospects, and as we’re seeing UX teams grow, we’re also starting to see them working more collaboratively with technical writing teams. This makes instructional content professionals stronger on whole, as we gain more visibiltiy in our organizations. There’s strength in numbers and businesses like the idea of investing in the customer (user).

5. Multimedia Integration: Beyond plain text, technical documentation incorporates multimedia elements. Videos, infographics, diagrams, and interactive tutorials improve understanding and engagement for users.

   1. The advancements in multimedia integration have been very exciting to say the least. As technical writers, we’ve always been leaned on to be more than writers, but also graphic designers/illustrators, content managers, project managers, code readers, translators, proofreaders, editors, and on and on and on... To stay afloat and gainfully employed we must embrace our role as general content wranglers, Whatever you can do to be more than a writer and become familiar with multimedia integration, you must take it on in the way of training. Create some simple multimedia instruction and add it to your portfolio. Responsive image mapping mentioned above falls into this category, as well as video instruction, animation, etc.

6. Data-Driven Insights: Writers analyze user data and feedback to enhance documentation. Metrics such as page views, search queries, and user interactions guide content updates and optimizations.

   1. World-class technical communications teams track their documents after publishing. Large organizations are catching on that user documentation matters, and how it is being used and accessed matters. As a technical writer, data insights are usually out of my hands and left to leadership. Should I become a lead or manager in the future which is a definite goal, it suits me well to be inquisitve and interested with my managers and bosses. I’m genuinely interested in how all of the instructional content I produce is received and thought of by the end user. Am I writing high quality help documentation? This question must permeate all of my technical writing endeavors.

7. Personalization: Customizing content based on user roles or contexts is gaining prominence. Writers create personalized material to ensure relevant information reaches the intended audience.

   1. All of the data harvesting that we allow ourselves to endure, should at least offer us some form of benefit. Being honest with myself, I do find that technology is using customization really well of late. For example, I bought a new PC yesterday and within 5-10 minutes, because I have basically a saved virtual profile of myself on the cloud, I’m able to begin using the new PC immediately without the hours required to setup a new device in the days of old. It used to be a big pain in the butt to engage with new technology, but I’m finding more and more that technology is making it easier to interact with, er, technology. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is a discussion for another blog, but if there’s something that I need to use tech for regardless, I prefer it be as frustration-free as possible.

Alrighty! This concludes my first detailed, thought-out blog entry to the AI Writer Hire Blog! I hope you gleaned some useful information here, and I’ll look forward to writing my next piece. Stay informed my writing friends!

This was all but confirmed when I picked up my iPad today and came across this article in the Wall Street Journal. The article delves into the world of academic studies and research paper mills, shedding light on the highly questionable practices of scholarly journals and the disastrous effect it’s having on scientific publishing and scientific integrity itself.

In short, professors, scientists and others are pressured to be published in order to advance their careers. Paper mills have filled this paper writing need by employing non-native writers to make up junk science articles with the help of AI writing tools. They may or may not slap a legit researcher’s name on the submission. The influence of the mills goes so deep that they’ve infiltrated the publishing houses themselves! The journals mentioned have published junk science knowing full-well that the information therein is either not properly vetted or is altogether unworthy of publication (100% garbage)! They’re counting on the waters being so muddied that no one will check the sources or otherwise notice. The sad part is a lot of times they’re correct in this assumption.

Worried yet?

I’m not sure that I’m worried per se, but I am disheartened, and when the tidal wave of crap content starts to hit the shores of the internet, I’ll certainly be expecting it.

Bravo to Nidhi Subbaraman, author of the WSJ piece, the Wall Street Journal, and the researchers and scientists highlighted in the article who are not afraid to call bullshit.

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