John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

The trick is to write like you are telling a Martian how to change a flat tire. Are you good at that ? For example, there are many assumptions made by the average person on what a lugnut is, what a tire iron is, and where they are stored in the vehicle. When writing documents, you cannot overlook those assumptions. You have to explicitly call them out and be descriptive in minute detail.

Is that you ?

Your abbreviated resume you posted is not describing such an individual. You need to reword your statements. For example, " Nine years of experience assisting crew chiefs with inspections ... " is not a statement that hiring managers are impressed with. During those nine years, what outstanding or meritorious events did your participation make to the outcome of successful inspections ? What anomalies did you catch that potentially saved lives by avoiding an accident ?

"1. Pull safely over to the side of the road as far away from traffic as you can. 2. Stop the engine. 3. Secure the hand-brake. 4. Exit the vehicle, checking for passing motorists while doing so. 5. Open the trunk. 6. Open the carpet. 7. Locate the jack, tire iron, and spare tire. 8. Check to see if the spare tire is properly inflated. ... "

Deb Yeagle ⋅ Tampa, FL Plan To Win, Inc. ⋅ 39 years experience

Nicholas-
Thanks for your service!
Have you ever considered applying your technical writing skills to proposal development? So instead of applying your expertise to developing technical manuals for operational or developmental programs, you could apply it to developing technical proposal responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and help companies win contracts.
If you extend your job search to positions for technical writing to support business and proposal development, you will probably find companies willing to give you a shot and provide OJT in proposal development.
Good luck and email me if you need more specific advice to pursue this idea.
Thanks again!
Deb

Barry Manz ⋅ Englewood Cliffs, NJ Manz Communications, Inc. ⋅ 31 years experience

Hi Nicholas

Some comments:

• Can you share anything you’ve written, such as technical articles or even a manual? That would be a big help to us out here.

• As you obviously know, manuals (that is, good ones), are exceedingly difficult to write, which is why so many are horrible. John Green nailed it: If you can teach a Martian to change a tire you’re good to go, as the most infuriating problem with most manuals is that they take way too much for granted.

• Your experience in aviation is a HUGE benefit – don’t sell it short. Any manufacturer of electrical, electronic, mechanical, hydraulic, and other systems and subsystem could benefit from this experience.

• You need to match what you know (and can and want to write about) with what a specific type of potential employer needs, so go after companies that make or service what you know best. This no doubt seems obvious, but lots of people just indiscriminately blast out a lot of inquiries and are surprised when they get no bites.

• There is a possibility that you could find work as an editor in trade publishing, but I wouldn’t focus on this market, as it generally doesn’t pay well, is not very secure, and is shrinking.

• The government, and DoD in particular, might be a good place to look, as you might find work as a civilian contractor. Perhaps someone out there can shed some light on this as I have no experience working for the government.

• There are, or at least used to be, quite a few agencies that specialize in preparing technical material for private industry. In this capacity, you’d be a subcontractor to one of these agencies. The problem with this scenario is that you’re not directly billing the end client, and the agency makes most of the money. However, it’s possible to have steady income doing this kind of work, which is fine if you don’t have to buy your own health insurance, which is insanely expensive on the individual market and provides terrible coverage. If DoD provides health insurance for you, it’s a huge benefit when you are a contractor.

I hope some of this helps, and good luck!

Barry

Nicholas Mathews ⋅ Trussville, AL U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 11 years served

And, if anyone wanted to see a rather detailed profile of my experience you can see my LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-mathews-7564aa56

With Gratitude
Nicholas

Nicholas Mathews ⋅ Trussville, AL U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 11 years served

This is a reply to Deb. My reply to John is in the post below.

Thank you for your support Deb.

Proposal development: I have come across these postings before, but had no idea whether or not they would consider someone with my experience.

That said, I can certainly see myself writing proposals, and will email you for more information. Thank you.

Nicholas Mathews ⋅ Trussville, AL U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 11 years served

Hello John and Deb. Thank you for your reply. I will reply to John here, and will post another to reply to Deb.

John, you said "The trick is to write like you are telling a Martian how to change a flat tire. Are you good at that ?"

Yes.

"You have to explicitly call them out and be descriptive in minute detail. Is that you ?"

Yes.

"Your abbreviated resume you posted is not describing such an individual. You need to reword your statements."

Thank you for the feedback. You are certainly right, those do not impress a hiring manager, although those statements were really only meant to give a summary of my experience. I should have provided some more information.

As far as results type statements relating to technical writing go, here is what I have:

Authored 4 approved technical order improvements; one decreased landing gear bypass valve replacement by 2 hrs.

Streamlined the training process by making improvements to the training manual, which was lauded by inspectors as exceptional.

Authored four technical articles for first time telescope purchasers to teach how telescopes operate and to aid in choosing their first telescope. (Personal Entrepreneurial project)

A sample of some results oriented statements not specific to technical writing in my resume:

Diffused a tense situation among a group of superiors and colleagues, which saved $68K in aircraft parts.

Led 16 peers during 3K-pound shipments of highly classified material. This transfer spanned 20 projects with many moving parts (including rigorous processing and check-ins), had an error-free rate of 100%, and totaled 100K-pounds.

Managed a team of 5 overseeing hydraulics system repairs on 25 Boeing C-17s. Led team on 30+ projects valued at $6B contributing to a mission success rate of over 90%.

1 of 20 service members hand selected for a mission supporting the President of the United States. Managed repairs on 5 planes transporting the Presidential Limo, Secret Service, and thousands of pounds of equipment in and out of Ghana with no delays.