TWTechnical Writer
TW
Career

Technical Writer

By the numbers
Typical pay
$90,390 / yr
Education to start
Bachelor's degree
Future demand
+0.9% by 2034
People in this job
46K
Figures shown for ·1 O*NET occupation
The work
A day, hour by hour
09:00
Triage & plan

Scan overnight Slack, flag doc tickets, rank what ships this sprint.

09:20
Standup

Sync with eng and PM. Find out what changed since yesterday.

09:40
SME interview

Corner the backend engineer — pull out the details no ticket explains.

10:30
Deep write

Draft the new API guide from scratch; plain words, no engineer-speak.

12:30
Product test

Run through the procedure yourself — two steps break exactly as suspected.

13:30
Revise & screenshot

Fix the broken steps, capture annotated screenshots, add a flowchart.

15:00
Doc review

PM redlines the draft — negotiate what's v1 and what waits.

16:00
Update & publish

Patch existing docs for the new feature; push to the live knowledge base.

16:45
Structure audit

Decide: restructure the whole section, or just patch what's broken today.

Things you do
  • Translate engineer-speak into plain instructions anyone can follow.
  • Write step-by-step guides, API docs, and user manuals from scratch.
  • Interview engineers and developers to pull out the details you need.
  • Actually test the product yourself to make sure your instructions work.
  • Add screenshots, diagrams, and flowcharts to make tricky concepts click.
Decisions you’ll make
  • Is this explanation simple enough for a beginner, or am I losing the expert?
  • Should I push back on the engineer's deadline, or ship docs that aren't quite right?
  • Do I need to actually test this procedure myself, or can I trust what the developer told me?
  • Is this a confusing product, or just confusing documentation I can fix?
  • Should I restructure this whole section, or just patch what's broken?
Education Pathways · how you get there
93 in 100 went the college route · 7 in 100 found another way in Less than 5 years, typically
Education mapped from O*NET:Technical Writers · 98% related
If you like this, also look at