Every writer seeks more jobs and a higher income regardless of location or skill proficiency. Newbie writers dream of earning a good income as they start off in technical writing, which is excellent. However, the issue doesn’t lie with having the dream but the process of achieving that goal in real-time. When increasing your pricing, you will need a standard proficiency level and experience to aim for a specific income range. You also need to showcase your experience level to clients. You can only do this with a well-crafted portfolio. So, let’s check out some details on the meaning and process of creating a technical writing portfolio for your job hunts.
What Is a Technical Writing Portfolio?
A technical writing portfolio is like a typical portfolio but tailored to express all your technical writing skills and experience. It’s a portfolio that you have to create to match the requirements that employers include in their job openings. Before considering your portfolio creation, you need to be a technical writer, so you don’t get too many rejections. It doesn’t mean you can’t create one as a newbie, but you need some specific skills to aid portfolio building. These skills will help make you a qualified technical writer despite having little to zero field experience. There are also other specifics you need to include, while there are some you must omit in your portfolio. Let us check out some of the things to note before you start creating your technical writing portfolio.
Things To Note When Creating a Technical Writing Portfolio
There is a process to creating a portfolio to showcase your skill level and experiences in every field you are in. You also use the same approach to prepare your technical writing portfolio but follow some standards. It means that you need to note several things that might be similar to other portfolios but necessary. You already know what a portfolio for technical writing is, so let’s see the things to note while creating it.
Include Documented Materials
You are applying for a documentation-based role, so all materials you showcase should be related to documentation. People think showing their range by adding other forms of general writing will boost their chances of landing jobs. However, it doesn’t work that way, and you will reduce your chances of landing a job by taking that step. You can still show your range, but you must make it related to documentation to show your versatility. Your range outside technical documentation is not wasted; you can include them in portfolios when searching for other positions.
Show Your Experience
Sometimes you want to tone down your abilities in portfolios for reasons that are best known to you. It’s not the best advice since you are shooting yourself in the leg and reducing your negotiating chances. Your portfolio is a dashboard to help showcase your abilities, so you should maximize its potential with your past work. Show off what you can do or what you have done to help your potential employers to understand your strengths. Express your range in your portfolio, except if it’s in a niche unrelated to documentation writing.
Skills Are Important
Your skills are also essential when creating your technical writing portfolio, and it’s not just about the document samples alone. You do need to have authentic samples, but you also need to show your skills with your accuracy in them. Accessing your skills with your portfolio is not evident, like how you include and list them in your resume. It’s more like showing how you implemented these skills in the included projects you have completed for your portfolio. Most that you can show are the technical skills related to writing, but it’s still an advantage to include there.
Steps To Creating a Professional Technical Writing Portfolio
Many confuse the steps for creating your technical writing portfolio with the things you should note when creating them. It’s pretty different since the latter are details you must consider before starting, while the former is a concise walkthrough. You must prioritize the important information above and the steps you are about to read below. So here are the steps that you need should follow to create a professional portfolio for technical writing:
Gather Your Samples
Your first step is to prepare your proof of work experience in the form of samples or past work. It’s pretty easy for people who already have some technical writing experience since they have past projects they have completed. However, newbies will have difficulty getting one to include in their portfolio, but there is a solution. The only solution for newbies is to create multiple samples based on real-life projects to showcase in their portfolios. You need to show employers what you can do, so completing 2 to 3 sample projects is essential.
Reanalyze Your Samples
It’s an important step that experienced technical writers need to pay attention to since it affects them significantly. Reanalyzing your samples or projects to include in your portfolio is vital since you need to perfect every detail. You need to correct every error and fix all loopholes, and it goes for both newbies and professional technical writers. However, experienced writers also have to review contracts for their past work to validate the rules. Some may include confidential details, and you don’t want to encounter issues when creating your portfolio, so contact those employers.
Prioritize Print or Document Format
You can get your portfolio across in digital and print formats, depending on the route of the job assessment. Prints work better if you submit your portfolio to the company in person, but the digital format works for freelancers. You need to avoid creating a portfolio with many spaces since it makes you seem weak in your field. Your best option is to combine smaller projects and arrange them in a double-sided format. Taking this step will not just show you off as a confident technical writer but also set their sights on you.
Conclusion
Technical writing takes a different direction than the other aspects of content writing, which you must note. Therefore, the procedures to create your portfolio will also take a different turn than the other categories. You will find the process of creating your technical writing portfolio pretty convenient with the steps above. Before considering portfolio creation, note that you must complete your technical writing training.