There are numerous opportunities for professional writers beyond technical writing. Although these roles might not be called technical writers, many of the core hard and soft skills overlap with technical writing. All of them involve a core element of writing and editing competence. If you’ve built up your skills in one professional writing career, great news: you may find it very easy to transition to another with a little additional training or experience.

Here are some examples:

Voice of Practitioner

Francis Role: Technical Writer with 4 years’ experience Location: Manchester, United Kingdom Expertise: Software documentation “I was working in an engineering manufacturing company, where I started as a Trainee Production Operator. I was fixing machines for the automotive industry, doing the physical tooling—it was a hands-on job. During that time I went back to uni on a scholarship with the company to do a STEM degree. In studying, a job came up as a technical writer at my company, and when I applied, they thought I was a good fit because I knew the company, I knew the tools, and I was proving to be literate—I was quite a company guy.”