Q: Where is a good place to start a job search upon graduation from a tech. comm. program?
A: Upon graduation, tech. comm. majors might look for opportunities within mid-to-large size corporations—versus small or startup companies.
Why? Because these companies offer writers the greatest landscape of products, projects, and tools. Also, their environments are conducive to:
–New product development.
–Product updates.
–Providing more senior-level writers for advisement, consultation, and mentoring
–More formalized processes and procedures within the corporation.
–Division of labor within a formal publication group.
–Exposure to a variety of tasks within a formal publication group.
–Developing new skill sets.
–More prevalent use of content management and archiving systems.
Also, large corporations support well-structured publication groups that allow the writer:
–To tap into the knowledge of more experience writers and consult with them as mentors.
–More opportunities to experience different parts of the document development process.
–Gain collaboration experience with other team members, and across other departments.
–Learn negotiation and mediation skills with other departments and project stake holders.