This is technical writing!

I have recently moved from book editing and communication into my new professional field - technical writing. My year as a technical writing student proved to be filled with technical knowledge but also insights about myself and how connected technical writing is to other professional fields. 

Written by: Lena Öhrström

Technical terms and verb forms

Lena Öhrström, informiQ intern.

CAD, topics, STE, and CCMS. Last October I had no idea what this was, but now I do! This means I have learnt a lot – about technical writing.

Before I started a class in technical writing, I thought I would do just fine with the knowledge and experience I already have. Words, text, information, and communication have always been my line of work. As an editor and communications officer, I have written many texts, but I have also worked with texts and input from other people. Hence, I’m used to considering the effect of different phrasings. Active verb forms and imperatives are kind of old friends of mine – and even more so as a technical writer.

Gaining and getting rid of

Of course, I did not join a class where I thought I would not learn anything. But to see clearly you often need some distance. It is not until after, when you use your knowledge, that you know you have gained it. Now it is after. And now I know I have gained very specific knowledge – about technical writing.

During the last year I have also become very aware of how much I enjoy getting rid of the “unnecessary stuff”. Just keeping the core. I have just not seen this so clearly before. To really see it I needed experience – of technical writing.

Concise and clear

At my latest job we put a lot of effort into making texts available for people with impairments like brain fog and lack of ability to concentrate. Our motto was: “What works for a person with a cognitive impairment works for everyone.” It needs to be short, concise, without flourishes, no words that can be misunderstood, no long, winding wordings where you get lost. In short: a little bit like technical writing.

informiQ helped clear the path

Technical writing is not just about writing though. It is also about technology.

Image: Unsplash

And there have been moments when I wondered how to find my way through deliberately unclear input and thought this might be my Achilles’ heel. But how fortunate I was to do my internship at Informiq! I spent eight weeks with one of their customers. They had tangible machines that I could observe with my own eyes and generous, knowledgeable people who like to talk about their machines. 

All of this is technical writing. So much more than I imagined.

What do we look for in new consultants?

Written by: Josefin Löfstedt (CEO), Agneta Eriksson (Business developer/Co-pilot), Mikael Leveau (Site manager Linköping)

Selling competence is our business. We’re really good at that, and the competence we sell is sought-after and appreciated by our customers. Our consultants are both highly competent and really great people to be around - we are very proud of that and strive to keep this level of excellence.

So what do we look for when it's time to hire new consultants?

What we look for in potential new consultants

• Relevant competence

• A will to work as a consultant as well as an understanding of what it entails

• An overall good personality that goes along with our values

16 out of our total of 26 people who make up informiQ. Photo: Mikael Leveau

Soft skills vs hard skills

Our business is selling competence, that is just a fact. Therefore, our consultant’s competence matters a lot since every customer looks for competence to match their needs.

That said, soft skills are also very important. For example the ability to communicate, to understand someone else’s point of view, to problem-solve, as well as to collaborate with other people are necessary traits of being a successful consultant.

Also - potential matters. Most of our consultants are senior, that means they have solid experience in a variety of professional areas. However, we sometimes hire people with less experience but lots of potential.

Consultant mindset

There is not one description of what working as a consultant is like. But an important common factor is the ability to step in and be a professional asset, and always leave the situation better than before you came. Having an outsider’s view often helps us improve things where a company can be stuck in a rut.

Being an overall great person always helps build on your good reputation which in turn can open up new assignment possibilities.

Our Diversity & Inclusion statement. Source: informiq.se

Values and culture

We believe that our values are an important part of what makes informiQ a great employer. We don’t discriminate, everyone has the same rights, possibilities, and obligations, gender equality is a natural part of any activities and relationships. Also - everyone is given the same possibilities for leadership, competence development, and pay based on contribution, and we have a company culture that promotes the needs and possibilities for all employees. 

The informiQ culture is warm and welcoming, we care about each other and really like each other. We want all our consultants to feel the same way about being informiQ employees.

In short, we’re interested in competent professionals who are all-around good people who share our values and also want to be part of and contribute to our warm community.

Our advice to you: As a consultant, you will get the opportunity to try on different assignments and companies. You will constantly grow, regardless if you stay with one customer or go from assignment to assignment. We want to encourage your professional and personal development by listening to what is important to you, so that we can work proactively to find new customers and assignments as you grow with us.

Becoming a tech doc ace requires a multitude of competencies

Technical writing, that’s just being good at tech and writing step-by-step instructions, right? Well, if you want to do a really good job, there’s quite a lot more to it. Becoming a tech doc ace requires a multitude of competencies.

Text & images by: Karin Askeroth

There are many different kinds of knowledge that is useful to be successful in the role of a technical writer, and we have listed the ones we find most important:

• Writing: User manuals, technical documentation, policies and procedures, as well as case studies all require writing with excellent readability, accurate wording and compliant with applicable standards.
  

• Editing: Text review, proofreading, typography, tone of voice and technical vocabulary ensures functional accuracy as well as flawless texts that speak with the voice of the company.
  

• Information architecture & Document management: The ability to structure the documentation in a good way will help you from day one. This goes for both structuring of the content, and for ensuring a good structure within every single document.
  

• Design: Information design, typography and graphic design basics helps make the content easier to grasp and absorb, while ensuring the material represents the company.
  

• Research: Even if you know the product well, research is always a part of technical writing. This includes research of both the specific product and of its end users.
  

• Teamwork: The ability to work with many different kinds of people, organizing, planning, conflict-solving, decision-making and problem-solving.
  

• Single-sourcing: A great way to save yourself from starting from scratch when creating new documents is to have a master source file that can be repurposed when new needs arise.
  

• User experience: In order to write great user guides you need to investigate how the end users will use the product. It may not always be the exact same way that the business analysts and the development team have pictured.
  

• Technical writing tools: There are plenty of tools for technical writing. It’s useful to at least learn the basics of a few.

These are three of our exceptional consultants that you would be happy to have in your project!

Technical writing offers specialization possibilities

One single person can not have all this knowledge, and other skills than the ones mentioned can also be useful. Technical writing is a field with great opportunities to broaden your knowledge and to specialize in what interests you the most.

Our advice to you: Once you have the basic knowledge you need in order to work as a technical writer, see what specialized areas you are most interested in. In most cases; what you find easy to do is where you’ll be able to specialize the most.