What Should I Include on a Technical Writer Resume?

After your name and contact information, the first thing future employers should see on your technical writer resume is the word "objective," beside which you should include the exact title of the position they're using. Your resume should then be organized into "work experience," "skills" and "education." Make sure you use verbs in point form to give enough detail about your technical qualifications in a concise, easy-to-read format.

Think about how your skills and past experience fit with the company's job title and your employment objective. This should give you an idea of what information is crucial to include on your technical writer resume. While you can use the same basic resume when applying to different technical writer positions, it's crucial to adjust it to include any specifics relevant to each individual company. The whole idea is to have your resume help you get noticed and thought of by the hiring manager as a contender for the technical writer job you want. The more you can tweak the resume to promote your skills and experience as the ideal fit, the better.

Never include anything other than the complete truth on your resume though. Don't prepare a resume that's more than one or two pages long or isn't well organized. Most hiring managers initially scan each resume they receive in a matter of seconds, looking for qualifications that stand out. The resumes that do make a good first impression typically then go into a separate pile and get read a second time. Be sure that your technical writer resume has no typos and uses strong, verb-filled language in point form.

For example, in your "work experience" section, it's best to include something such as "worked with many different programming languages" rather than use a full sentence beginning with the pronoun "I." Pay attention to details and fill out information where possible. For instance, using the example above, you could list in point form the names of the programming languages you worked with under the "skills" section.

While the exact title of the position you're applying for should always be included immediately after your name and full contact information at the top of your resume after the word "objective," the "work experience," "skills" and "education" sections may be placed in the order of your strongest to weakest qualifications. For a resume for a senior technical writing position, beginning with "work experience" can be a good strategy to showcase your career achievements. If your technical writer resume is for an entry-level job and you lack work experience, yet have completed comprehensive training in the field, starting with "education" would likely be best.