I write a lot about content strategy and writing for the Web and I noticed a funny thing the other day. I was talking with a friend about an article he wanted me to guest write for his blog about helping out-of-work web content strategists find a job. We talked around the subject for a while trying to find a good angle and it occurred to me that it was no wonder we were having trouble – I don’t know any out-of-work content strategists!

That was kind of a revelation really. Even with the bad economy and double-digit unemployment, all the Web writers and content strategists I know are hard at work. The contractors are doing particularly well. But I DO know a few technical writers who have been recently laid off who are finding technical writer jobs hard to come by.

But the technical writers I know have great job skills. They can handle almost any kind of writing and are used to living under deadline pressure. It seemed odd that web content development and content strategy job skills would be in demand, but the closely related technical writer jobs would be drying up.

So we starting thinking – if technical writer jobs are going to be so hard come by, then maybe it’s time for my friends to take those technical writer job skills and put them to work elsewhere. This conversation got interesting fast. Before I started working in the Web content world, I had been a technical writer for ten years. So I have a deep understanding of the technical writer world, technical writer job skills, and how to take those skills and stop looking for technical writer jobs and move to growing areas of technical writing and on to other job areas such as the Web. I’m living proof that it can happen and that the change can be very profitable.

We came up with so many interesting article ideas that I decided to write about something else on his blog entirely and keep the technical writer jobs idea for myself as the subject of a blog. I think that technical writers have great job skills and I look forward to writing about how to best put them to use in a job that pays well and that they feel good about!

I’ll be covering:

• New and developing technical writer jobs
• Featured technical writer job listings
• Taking technical writer job skills to the Web
• Going freelance as a technical writer
• The technical writer jobs market

Plus anything else that pops into my head!

Learn more about how I used my technical writer jobs skills get a much higher paying job as a Content Strategist working on Web site development projects.

Content Strategy Jobs Board

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Technorati Tags: content strategy, freelance, Technical Writer Jobs

• The Technical Writer Jobs market increased by only 1.5 percent in 2008. That’s just 740 new jobs for the whole country.
• New Jersey and Michigan gained the most new jobs
• Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, andPhoenix lost the most technical writer jobs
• The median salary got a small bump up to 61,620 USD

Once again, not a very encouraging report. Much of the growth was not in the traditional software development base, but in industrial equipment and goods. New jobs in Web writing and Content Strategy were up a lot more with a much higher median salary.

Technorati Tags: content strategy, STC, Technical Writer Jobs

It took a while, but I finally got a clue as to what was going on from a friend who was a manager in a company where I was being considered. The hard truth was that I had priced myself out of the current market. Times were tight and there were plenty of people with OK skills who were eager to take the jobs for much less that what I was used to getting.

I think that this is happening now in the technical writer jobs market. Plus, the problem is being compounded by the collapse of the print media. Journalists of all kinds are fining themselves out on the street and looking for a new place to sell their skills. Technical writing is the first place to try for many with any kind of technical background. Especially those who started out as technical writers and then moved into other areas. They all head back to technical writing and cause the jobs market to get very competitive. This drives full-time salaries down.

Competing in a Tough Technical Writer Jobs Market

There are three ways to compete and win in this kind of market:

1- Beef up your resume, really call attention to skills that you have that may be in short supply, and duke it out for the best jobs.

2 - Lower your compensation expectations and compete on price in the short term until things get better.

3 – Go compete in a different league where things are not as competitive or where the overall pay level is higher.

If you decide to go with door number 3, I think that both the writing for the Web and Content Strategy markets are good choices, as is taking your technical writer jobs skills over into the freelance and contract market. The overall pay and competition are better in the Web writing and content strategy areas and working on contract let’s you apply for jobs all over the world, not just in your backyard.

Technorati Tags: content strategy, Freelance Technical Writer, Technical Writer Jobs