| As others have stated, coding development jobs are the best thing to aim for. They also give you a baseline that has value everywhere else. Others have provided good advice on this so I'll focus elsewhere. Documentation writing is something that can get you in the door at interesting places. It can also give you time with technology in a less pressured environment to learn it and switch to more technical jobs. Bigger companies have roles like this, but they are obscured because documentation writer is not a sexy title, and the role is more than writing. It can be part testing features or providing product feedback ("I tried writing about this feature but it's so complicated. Will people even use it?") To work out some places to try applying I started with Microsoft. I'd ignore locations, even when listed because companies haven't updated their tools to reflect remote or are stupidly optimistic. Even if you got fired because you wouldn't work onsite at the end of 2021, the experience would give you a serious boost. How I found the roles: 1. Searched for "Microsoft documentation". Found docs.microsoft.com.
2. Searched for docs.microsoft.com on jobs.microsoft.com.
3. Found "content developer" roles listed. This is the job title stuff I was talking about. At the core it's tech writing.
4. Pivoted to searching "content developer" - https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/search-results?keywords=... Repeat that for other companies and you'll find different opportunities. There may also be contracting roles but it's harder to get into those initially. Writing docs for open source projects associated with these companies can help to make contacts. Red Hat is another place to consider for this reason. It's important to have a portfolio of work. If you apply for a doc writer role you'd need to find examples that map onto what they produce. Also, look for opportunities to critique their work to some degree and be ready to suggest how you might improve their current work. Docs are becoming more interactive and interesting too, so any suggestions on how to make them more interesting will find more ears. |