From instructional designer to technical communicator
11 of the 24 essential skills of a technical communicator are already essential for a instructional designer — about 46% of the job, before you learn anything new.
These numbers compare two occupations, not you and a job. What you personally already cover depends on what you have actually done.
- 11
- skills carry over
- 13
- would be new
- 46%
- of the target job covered
- 24
- essential skills of a technical communicator
What a technical communicator does
Technical communicators prepare clear, concise and professional communication from product developers to users of the products such as online help, user manuals, white papers, specifications and industrial videos. For this, they analyse products, legal requirements, markets, customers and users. They develop information and media concepts, standards, structures and software tool support. They plan the content creation and media production processes, develop written, graphical, video or other contents, generate media output, release their information products and receive feedback from the users.
What carries over
11 skillsEssential in both jobs. This is the part of the move you have already made.
What would be new
13 skillsEssential for a technical communicator and not for a instructional designer. Note that the taxonomy describes activities rather than tools, so some of these may be things you already do under a different name.
- develop documentation in accordance with legal requirements
- develop ICT safety information
- documentation types
- gather technical information
- ICT software specifications
- integrate content into output media
- interpret technical texts
- knowledge base
- manage information sources
- multimedia systems
- product usage risks analysis
- provide technical documentation
- visual presentation techniques
Other moves from instructional designer
2 roles- e-learning developer19 skills in common
- web content manager15 skills in common
← instructional designertechnical communicator →The other way round
No account needed to start
How far are you from being a technical communicator?
MyNodes reads your CV once, maps it to this same taxonomy, and shows you which roles you are already closest to and the few skills that would open the most doors. The file is deleted as soon as it has been read.