What About Jobs, Employment Prospects, Internships?

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-2009 edition, employment of writers and editors generally is predicted to rise in line with the overall national employment average. However, opportunities should be best for writers with training in a specialized field. Demand for technical writers with expertise in areas such as law, medicine, or economics is expected to increase because of the continuing expansion of scientific and technical information and the need to communicate it to others. Legal, scientific, and technological developments and discoveries generate demand for people to interpret technical information for a more general audience. Rapid growth and change in the high-technology and electronics industries result in a greater need for people to write users' guides, instruction manuals, and training materials. This work requires people who not only are technically skilled as writers, but also are familiar with a subject area.

Be aware that students in ACC's Business & Technical Communications program routinely get employment—often as they are taking our courses. One student enrolled in the FrameMaker course (ETWR 2472) cited FrameMaker on her Monster.com resume; she had handsome job offers before the semester was over.

• Job Listings. Made available by EServer TC LIbrary, this is a list of job listings.
• Best and Worst Jobs 2010. From the Wall Street Journal; we are 13th!
• The Write Jobs. A collection of articles on employment.
• Technical Writing Articles. From Writer's Resource Center, articles about the work, salary, employment listings.
• Elance.com. Search for technical writers!
• Yahoo HotJobs Search on "technical writer" and omit city/state.
• indeed.com Search on "technical writer."
• Newbie Technical Writing Job Links. Collection of links to various job websites.
• Employment Central. Links to actual technical-writing jobs with requirements. Gives you a picture of the array of work that technical writers do. From TECHWR-L.
• dice.com. Specializes in Information Technology jobs; search on "technical writer."
• Yahoo! Careers. Search on "technical writer" and stand back!
• NationJob Network. Search on you-know-what.
• Work in Texas. Made available by Texas Workforce. Click find state jobs and search jobs.

You can get academic or continuing-education credit for internships. However, the Business and Technical Communication Program cannot find you an internship. Use these resources to search for an internship. When you find an internship, contact the BTCM department chair to work out the details:

• InternMatch. A free service!
• Simply Hired
• Austin Community College career page
• After College
• Student Educational Employment Program. From the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
• internships.com
• Volunteering Your Way to a Paying Job. From The Wall Street Journal.