My short story

Straight out of University with a masters degree in Chemistry, I found myself in a professional field that I happened to love and enjoy.

This was a profession that had nothing to do with Chemistry, medicine or anything like that… but I loved it so much that when I understood what this profession is actually all about I was proud to say:

I am a technical writer.

I often had to explain to friends and acquaintances what it is and still I did that with passion, and pride because it became a part of me.

As I loved so much what I was doing, I wanted to give more people the chance to become tech writers. So, I started mentoring the new hires on my team and I found out that being a mentor is something which makes me feel fulfilled.

Seeing others grow and in turn fall in love with the profession made me feel happy and proud at the same time.

Dreams change. In real life, they do not end with a happily ever after. As a technical writer, I could mentor 2-3 people in a year. If I wanted to continue to do that at a scale, I had to change my role to that of a manager. Start hiring, build a team. This was a big and very difficult step for me. I still loved technical writing, but I felt the need to do more than that. I had to let others do it while I provided guidance, encouragement, and (I hope so) inspiration. My toughest lessons were stepping back and observing without interfering, delegating and giving advice only when asked.

The greatest gift from my management role was the pure joy of seeing writers on my team grow and excel, but above all it was the feeling that we shared a common passion and go in the same direction.

After several years in management, I realized that I miss writing technical documentation too much, I missed the investigation, the testing of the products, the communication with SMEs, I even tried doing both technical writing and managing people at the same time and this resulted in burnout. So, I stepped back and became an individual contributor again.

Pursued other dreams, obtained a certificate in UX writing, was a part of a wonderful team of software engineers, UX designers, product managers, technical support engineers, and writers.

I often say: I became a technical writer by chance and I fell in love with the profession, and luckily the love is mutual. This is a wonderful journey and I dream that it goes on.