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Technical Writing. Documentation Engineering. DX Engineering. DocOps. All these terms and then some are used to describe the various shapes and forms that being a documentation author can take. It can be a confusing, often obfuscated road - to make matters worse, "technical writing" can mean very different things to different people and different organizations.

Indeed, the term "technical writing" can encompass anything from documenting APIs to documenting how airplanes work. It can mean anything from producing hard copy manuals for medical equipment to writing digital documentation for the most abstract concepts in tech.

Turn these notes into something good

how to transition to technical writing:

learn the fundamentals of technology. study:
    networking
    software design and APIs
    system administration (linux)
    cybersecurity fundamentals
    programming basics
    web and web app design

if you have no prior education in these topics, it is also HIGHLY recommended to take some basic history in the history of tech/computing, watch a few documentaries.

next, learn the cursory basics of how an agile company works by taking some courses in:

product development
project management
GTM

next, it's time to build your skillset. currently, the flow of a modern tech writer is comprised of the following:

git and GitHub, both of which are must-haves
Markdown
HTML/CSS
some JS framework is a major plus
MDX
static site generators
docs-as-code workflows
DITA frameworks

these are the basic building blocks for any successful tech writer in today's market.

you can decide to be a specialist, or you can decide to make yourself as generally applicable as possible. decide, do you want to...

write API docs for software?
write about infrastructure and cloud technology?
write about specialized tech, such as fintech or ML?

if you want to go into infrastructure, then you can divide your time learning more about networking, servers, and cloud tools such as storage solutions and VPC topologies.

devops lays smack dab between software and infrastructure. anything with a kern towards devops, learn kubernetes, docker as a baseline.

if you want to go into software, learn more about programming. take a few basic classes in languages like Python and Ruby. take a couple classes in JavaScript.

now it's time to build your portfolio.

but where to start?

the ideal place to start is with personal projects and open source software. here is the autodidact's course plan for...

technical writing tool chain (common)


writing for software
writing for a devops focus
writing for infrastructure/cloud computing