Technical Writing Jobs

[zaster]

This may be slightly off topic, but a number of people on this forum have mentioned that they have done technical writing work in the past. From reading posts here, I began to get the impression that technical writing is a relatively easy field to break into. But when I begin looking through job websites, it appears that basically every technical writing job, including the "entry level" ones, requires at least 2-5 years experience. My question for people who have done this work is, how did you find a place that would hire you? Are there specific sites with good listings? If you had no experience, what did you try to emphasize in your cover letter or resume?

[rainy_day]

This may be slightly off topic, but a number of people on this forum have mentioned that they have done technical writing work in the past. From reading posts here, I began to get the impression that technical writing is a relatively easy field to break into. But when I begin looking through job websites, it appears that basically every technical writing job, including the "entry level" ones, requires at least 2-5 years experience. My question for people who have done this work is, how did you find a place that would hire you? Are there specific sites with good listings? If you had no experience, what did you try to emphasize in your cover letter or resume?

If you want to get into media, publishing, etc. you can check out mediabistro.com and the websites of publishing companies.

[tortola23]

I took a gap year between my BA and this fall when I'll be starting my PhD, and I couldn't get a technical writing job to save my life. They were all hiring older people with more experience who had been laid off. I applied to over 300 jobs and was interviewed twenty-three times: no result.