About a month ago, I was at a restaurant with family and friends.
Somehow the conversation turned towards the relationship between getting degrees and achieving career success.
On one side of the table you had those who believed that you can't achieve any success without getting a college degree.
The other side argued that you don't need a degree to achieve financial success in life.
I generally like to keep my mouth shut when something like this happens.
But I just couldn't resist this one.
I voiced my opinion.
But my voice was not heard...
everyone on the dinner table had a strong opinion about this one.
And they were all talking at the same time.
Do you need a college degree to be a successful technical writer? The answer is no.
You can become a top notch technical writer without a college degree.
I'm not saying that a college degree is not beneficial.
It's always good to have a solid education foundation.
But you don't need to have a college degree to be a successful technical writer.
Which brings us to the question - what do you need to make the big bucks as a technical writer? One word - experience.
The more experience you have under your belt the more money you can make.
If you have the time and money to spend on a four year college degree then by all means go ahead.
But if you want to become a technical writer sooner than that and start earning money, then learn the basics of technical writing and start gaining experience.
Another benefit of gaining experience is that you learn as you work.
With increased experience comes increased knowledge.
And increased knowledge leads to confidence.
You will feel confident about yourself and will command more money.
I've been doing technical writing for the past 8 years.
I don't have a college degree in technical writing or technical communications.
When I first came to America nine years ago I did not know what technical writing was.
In fact, English was not even my first language.
If I can do it, so can you.