Finding Technical Writing Contracts & Opportunities - My Process

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During downturns in the economy or tough economic times, you must work that much harder to find employment. Developing a personal methodology or process is key. Here's part of my extended method or process and I'll mention up front, I prefer short-term contracting or consulting over captive or direct employment, and also 1099 independent contractor as opposed to a W2 employee.

Also, only once in my near ten years as a member of STC did it lead to a contract, via a posting to a Chapter job board, not the STC Main site job board.

Preferred Job Boards (in order of preference)

Indeed has an RSS feed, as does Dice, and you customize them for specific terms; technical writer in Charlotte, etc. (Some agencies now have this too!) I have all of mine setup in Google Reader to review each morning, but any RSS Feed reader/aggregator will do.

Posting a resume (and re-posting on a regular basis!) is an absolute must! Be prepared to custom tailor a boiler plate resume if you want to get an interview, and cover letters do often help. Understand that many (HR Dept., agencies) feed resumes through a key word search so knowing how that works and which key words to use may also help you standout from the rest.

Most openings these days are for contracting, not direct opportunities, although some can go contract-to-perm if the candidate is interested and has "The Right Stuff". Companies have had to scale back on personnel as they regain their footing in this recession, some from what I have read will be adding to that pool later this year and into 2011.

STC Chapters
Look to the chapters for local information about businesses that hire technical writers/communicators, if none then get in touch with the Chapter board and request it.

LinkedIn
There are a number of technical writing groups now on LinkedIn besides the one for STC and have been for a while.

Agencies (no order of preference)

* DISCLAIMER: I am not nor is any of my family members in any way associated with any of the above agencies, with the exception of Premier Alliance Group Inc. where I am now an employee.

* That is my current agency short list. I have a personal database, built from numerous sources but predominately email contacts from posting my resume on various job boards. I highly recommend you do the same with your preferred software applications; Personal information Management (PIM), email programs, databases, etc. Keeping it all together or easily accessed from one place, your updated resume, some generic cover letters that can be quickly custom tailored to better fit the job description and a list of references is also a good idea. Posting and completing a comprehensive profile on LinkedIn also may help to get you noticed by more recruiters too.

* Also make note that I pursue mostly Software/IT/Systems/Engineering related technical communications, but it wouldn't hurt to reach out and make contacts with them. I look for technical writer, business analyst, technical analyst, documentation specialist, etc. Fairly new ones are Content Management System (CMS) Specialist and Business Process Management Analyst, which is my new title for 2010.

The bigger the net, the better your chances of catching something I always say! Network Network Network!