idealpeople blog

Welcome to the second installment of Idealpeople’s Guest Author series, and introducing our very own Nick Tooley. Nick is our MD - our player/manager if you like. He’s a renowned Recruiter who has, over the years, developed a real talent for locating Technical Authors (as well as a myriad of other people), particularly in the UK’s Silicon Fen - Cambridge. As such he has some advice to give to existing and want-to-be Technical Authors out there. Here it is.

A simple golden rule for all Technical Authors
The clue is in the job title. What I’m wondering is why are there so many Technical Authors, Technical Writers, Information Developers or Documentation Speclialists (depending on what you prefer to be called) with CVs containing so many grammatical errors or content that doesn’t make sense or is just frankly incomprehensible.

Lets be honest, if you are applying for a role as a Technical Writer then you are falling spectacularly at the first hurdle if your CV does not sell your ability to construct a simple Word or PDF document without errors. I have seen CVs that claim excellent verbal and written communication skills that have spelt communication incorrectly. I saw a CV today and the candidate claimed in-depth experience writing online help using RoboHelp and yet in their CV had RoboHelp written 3 different ways (RoboHelp, Robohelp and Robo Help).

On many occasions I have gone back to a candidate and pointed out such errors, only to be engaged in lengthy email correspondence whilst they edit the CV and resend it. These normally still miss obvious grammatical and spelling mistakes.

It gets to the point where I feel I am misrepresenting my client by putting an applicant forward for a role where I have had to make so many recommendations to bring a CV up to scratch that I might as well have applied myself. This is a Technical Writing role, you are the writer, I am a mere Recruiter. I have now come to the conclusion that if a Technical Author / Technical Writer sends me a CV with any mistakes then they are fast tracked straight into my deleted items / recycle bin.

Imagine the embarrassment as a supplier if you were to put forward a CV for a Technical Writing role that contained such errors. Goodbye client, bye bye PSL and bang goes your credibility. To me this is like applying for a role as a Formula 1 racing driver without the ability to drive. I’ve always fancied going to the moon, but I’ve held off sending through an application to NASA because I think there is a strong chance that I’d fail the entry criteria.

Rant over, but I leave you with this final thought, if you are a Technical Author / Technical Writer or if you’d like to be one and you see the name Nick Tooley at the bottom of the advert as contact for the role, then check your CV once, re-read it twice, get a trusted friend to check the content and then and only then hit the apply button.

All spelling and grammar errors in this article are the author’s own. To search for and apply for Technical Authoring roles, run a search on here.