But You Need Experience...Don't You?

There is probably no greater mystery to the beginning student of any profession than how to circumvent the familiar job requirement of "experience".To students, it really IS a mystery, because, on the one hand, there are people out there who must have started at some point, like them, with no experience - but on the other hand, how the devil did they get around this requirement?

The unspoken working assumption in many students' minds is that somehow things were different way back when, but now, "everyone wants experience". Actually, it is not true - in fact, "experience" is sometimes as much as a hindrance to getting a job as the lack of it.

As the global economy slides into recession, worried students ask me how this will effect their chances of finding work after they graduate. At first glance, the situation looks grim: hi-tech companies are cutting back, putting a freeze on hiring, and firing whole departments. Technical writers, like programmers, engineers, and IT specialists, are effected. Workers who have years of experience suddenly find themselves without a job. All of this looks pretty scary.

But, paradoxically, a recession is an excellent time for new writers to break into the field. Companies that have cut back or frozen hiring, still need to put out documentation - without it, they can't sell their product. So, what do they do? They turn to out-sourcing. By obtaining the services from an out-sourcing company, or a freelancer, companies can circumvent the hiring restrictions- instead, they simply use the budget allocated to the project at hand. And this presents an unparalleled opportunity for beginners.

Over the years, people have asked me about whether their background is suitable for pursuing a career in Technical Communications. They mostly worry about the fact that they don’t possess any formal technical education - many have had little exposure to technical subjects. Typically, many of these people have degrees in English Literature, Social Sciences, Philosophy, Art, Music, History, and Education. They all have the same question, “can I do it?”

Added to their insecurity is the “wisdom” of friends, personnel managers, and even other technical writers who counsel that “only experienced people are considered for jobs today. And besides, without a technical background it’s going to be very hard to get a job in this field.”

YEDA has been fighting this perception for over 12 years and, with great success, we’ve succeeded in proving that those with no technical background and no previous experience can, with our training, enter the field of technical communications and succeed. Here are some cases that come to mind: