My Technical Writing Journal

On this particular day, I felt compelled to jot down my thoughts and share them with the rest of the world.
This post is about myself, my journey into technical writing, my goals, what I intend to accomplish, my niche, and how I'm rising above my obstacles.

Background

Roseline Bassey is my full name. I'm an English major pursuing a career in technical writing, with a concentration on the Cloud-Native niche. That's right, you read correctly. I do not view my non-computer science background as a barrier to achieving my goals in tech. Technology has always enthralled me.

I discovered a 3-week web development course in my first year of undergraduate study that presented me with an introduction to the world of technology. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of resources, such as a laptop and training cost, I was unable to continue the training after completing the basic classes.

I'm now more aware of the different opportunities available for anyone looking to start a career in tech. This platform is one of them, since it allows me to blog about my experiences, interact with people just like you're reading this article, and make connections.

Why Technical Writing?

Having a background in the English Language, a knack for technology, and a passion for teaching, it is evident technical writing is the right career for me. Technical writing involves explaining technical concepts in plain English. In technical writing, the objective is to write about complex technologies or products in a manner that the intended audience would understand. Tech writing includes a variety of niches, including healthtech, edtech and agrotech, software and hardware, and many more.

My learning interests would be in the documentation of software products, with a focus on cloud-native technologies like Kubernetes, Docker, API and so on.

How My Journey Began

In February, after doing much research about technical writing, I enrolled in a three-month technical writing boot camp. At that time, I had no programming experience. I'd like to point out that one misconception you'll often find mostly on Twitter is that technical writing doesnt require the knowledge of programming. In my opinion, this is misinformation. As the name implies there's a need to have technical knowledge to be able to write about technologies or software products.

I started learning my first programming language in April of 2022. I started with Python because its much easier to understand, and its syntax is human readable. I share my learning process on Twitter using the #100DaysofCode hashtag. Sharing about my progress offers me the opportunity to connect with people on the same journey such as the two friends I met on Twitter. Ayuni from Singapore and Sushmita from India. As study buddies, we check up on each other and meet twice a month on Google Meet.

Early on in this field, I saw the importance of identifying a niche. To stand out in the tech industry, I need to establish a specialty, have a clear roadmap, identify my goals, and be familiar with a variety of technologies or products. It can be daunting If your objectives aren't clear.

What I Intend to Achieve

This year, I'm so intentional about my personal and professional development, and because of this, I've established goals for myself that I expect to reach by the end of the year. These are some of the items I want to check off my checklist as I work toward becoming a cloud-native technical writer:

• Enhance my technical writing abilities
• Get comfortable writing codes in Python
• Learn how to use the Linux operating system.
• Learn about Kubernetes, containers, and cloud services.
• Publish at least two technical articles per month.
• Contribute to open-source documentation
• Build my technical writing portfolio
• Grow my Twitter account
• Apply for Technical Writing or Developer Advocate roles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I'll need all of the help I can get from the cloud-native community, technical writers, and the rest of the tech community.
I'm open-sourcing my learning journey to anyone with the right skills and the desire to help, just as open-source is public and anyone with the right skills can contribute, you can help me along my journey in a variety of ways, including:

• Offer weekly or monthly mentorship

• Share opportunities relevant to my career path, such as:

  • Paid learning resources or program
  • Internship

• Paid Kubernetes or Cloud certification exams

• Job opportunities

You can follow me on Twitter if you find my writing fascinating or if you're on the same path as me.