Nov. 8, 2023

Every once in a while, startup founders and managers decide that they need someone to create and manage their docs –perhaps after reading this letter. Some contact me to understand how they should go about hiring for a tech writer. Since I’ve already published tips for job hunting as a tech writer, I thought it would be a good idea to write down some advice for the other side, too. Here are my recommendations for software companies wanting to hire their first technical writer.

This list is the result of my experience as a first tech writer at different companies and in different roles. All the job interviews I’ve gone through the years and all the conversations I’ve had with fellow technical writers about the topic of hiring and getting hired also contributed to what you’re going to read next. I hired writers only once in my career, but I did advise many startups over the years.

Know your strategy before you hire

Hiring a technical writer might feel strange to someone who’s not accustomed to working with documentarians. Where should I place the first tech writer, they wonder. This rings especially true in young, flat organizations with few managers and departments. I’ve seen tech writers being placed under Marketing (“they all write, right?”), product, or engineering.

A technical writer is not a plug-and-play specialist you can embed to any team without thinking. Would you hire a developer without an architecture or product strategy? Then don’t hire a writer before you’ve a documentation or information experience strategy in mind. If you don’t have a docs strategy be transparent about that, and set aside time to work on it with your first writer.

Hiring a writer without a documentation strategy in place or a sense of what docs should accomplish and how they should interface with the rest of the organization is like hiring a musician without knowing when and what they should be playing. Don’t do that. Instead, draft your docs priorities and use them to inform the hiring process and the 30/60/90 plan.

Don’t put “native English” in the requirements

There is no such thing as a native speaker of technical English. Technical writers don’t need to be native speakers of English (whatever that means), so adding “native English” will not only estrange a sizable fraction of potential hires that weren’t born in an English-speaking country, but it’ll also signal you’re clueless about what skills are needed for great tech writing.

Technical English is a subset of standard English that uses simplified vocabulary and grammar for the sake of clarity and ease of consump