The Psychology of Job Hunting in Technical Writing

Allow me to say a few words about the psychology of job hunting since I see some artificial obstacles that some technical writers set up for themselves and I’d like to remove them if I can.

FIRST OBSTACLE

The first obstacle is to think “I’m not a very good technical writer” or “I’m not a good writer.”

The question is — “good, compared to what?” Compared to a Nobel-winner novelist? Don’t compare yourself with an Olympian God. It’s neither fair nor realistic.

Or which other technical writers you’re comparing yourself with? The chances are nobody because 99% of technical writing is published without a byline. Don’t compare yourself with a ghost.

The bottom line is — in any field, in any endeavor, you have to BELIEVE that you can do it. If you don’t, it’s almost impossible for a “third party” outside you to make you believe in your own adequacy. I’m not saying “perfection” because who said you need to be “perfect” (whatever that means) in order to work as a technical writer? But even to be adequate, you need the belief that you are adequate. So please reflect on this if you think you are not.

The thing is, technical writing is such an elementary, unadorned, straight forward type of writing that if you truly believe that you are not adequate for this type of writing, you should probably look for a career in another line of work that does not rely on any type of writing at all.

SECOND OBSTACLE

The second obstacle in job hunting is the fear, the anxiety that “what if I’m not good enough? what if they hire me but I can’t deliver the goods?”

Let’s tear this fear apart by showing four possible outcomes.

Your starting point is: right now, you don’t have a job.

Okay, let’s get on with it then:
———————–
ACTION 1: You apply for a technical writing position.
OUTCOME 1: They did not accept you.
RESULT: You still don’t have a job.
QUESTION: So what did you lose?
———————–
ACTION 2: They accepted you and you started to work at your new technical writing job.
OUTCOME 2: You don’t like the job.
RESULT: You quit.
QUESTION: You didn’t have a job in the beginning. So what did you lose?
————————-
ACTION 3: They think you are not good enough.
OUTCOME 3: You are fired.
RESULT: Now again you don’t have a job.
QUESTION: You didn’t have a job in the beginning. So what did you lose?
————————-
ACTION 4: You love your job. You discover that you are pretty good at this technical writing thing.
OUTCOME 4: You are promoted. They give you more things to do. They raise your salary.
RESULT: You are happy, productive, and proud.
QUESTION: So what did you lose?
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Ask yourself: “what’s the worst that can happen if I apply for this job?” and the answer will be there, obvious, staring at you in the face.