Technical Writer resume example
By Bhagirath Sheela, founder of JobCatch ·
Technical writers are hired to make complex products usable. The resume is itself a writing sample, so it must be clear, consistent and error-free — and the bullets should show documentation you owned, the audiences you wrote for and the effect it had on support or adoption.
What recruiters look for
- Documentation owned: API references, user guides, release notes
- Audiences: developers, administrators, end users
- Tools: docs-as-code, Markdown, Git, a style guide
- Results: fewer support tickets, faster onboarding
Section order
With experience
- Summary
- Portfolio link
- Experience
- Skills
- Education
As a fresher
- Summary
- Portfolio link
- Projects
- Education
- Skills
- Internships
Summary examples
Fresher
Technical writer with an English literature degree, a self-taught grounding in REST APIs, and a portfolio of three documentation samples including an open-source project's getting-started guide.
Experienced
Technical writer with five years documenting developer platforms. Rebuilt a payments API reference with docs-as-code, cutting integration support tickets by 35%.
Skills, spelled the way postings spell them
An applicant tracking system matches the words in the job posting, and it does not reliably treat two spellings as one skill. The left column is the form most postings use; the right, other spellings people type. Use the posting's own spelling for each application, and list only what you can discuss in an interview.
| Skill | Also written as |
|---|---|
| Documentation | Technical writing, Record keeping |
| Content writing | Copywriting, Content creation |
| Git | Version control, GitHub, Bitbucket |
| Confluence | — |
| JIRA | Atlassian Jira |
| REST APIs | REST, RESTful APIs, REST API |
| HTML5 | HTML |
| Agile methodology | Agile, Scrum, Kanban |
Also worth listing if you have them: Markdown and docs-as-code, API documentation (OpenAPI), Style guides.
Bullet examples
Each bullet says what you did and what changed because of it. Change the numbers to your own; a recruiter will ask about every one.
- Rebuilt the payments API reference from OpenAPI specs with docs-as-code; integration tickets fell 35%.
- Wrote the getting-started guide that cut median time to first API call from two days to three hours.
- Own release notes for a monthly release train across four products.
- Wrote the company's documentation style guide, now used by 40 engineers who contribute docs.
- Worked with support to turn the 50 most common tickets into help articles.
For freshers: projects and internships
- Wrote a getting-started guide for an open-source project; it was merged and is now the official one.
- Documented a public API end to end as a portfolio sample, with tested code examples.
- Edited the college magazine and its online edition for two years.
Mistakes to avoid
- A single typo. For a writer, the resume is the first writing sample.
- No samples. Link two or three pieces of your documentation.
- Describing writing without results. Show what changed for readers: fewer tickets, faster setup.
What an ATS reads from this sample
An applicant tracking system turns the PDF into plain text before anyone reads it. This is that text for the sample above, extracted by the same code as "What the ATS reads" in the app. Everything is in reading order, under the right heading, with the name and email intact — which is what a single-column template is for.
Nandini Bhat Technical Writer [email protected] • +91 98765 43210 • Bengaluru, Karnataka • linkedin.com/in/nandinibhat Summary Technical writer with five years documenting developer platforms. Rebuilt a payments API reference with docs-as-code, cutting integration support tickets by 35%. Experience Senior Technical Writer, Paylane Technologies Apr 2022 – Present Bengaluru Rebuilt the payments API reference from OpenAPI specs with docs-as-code; integration tickets fell 35%. Wrote the getting-started guide that cut median time to first API call from two days to three hours. Own release notes for a monthly release train across four products. Technical Writer, Cloudbridge Consulting Jan 2020 – Mar 2022 Bengaluru Wrote the company's documentation style guide, now used by 40 engineers who contribute docs. Worked with support to turn the 50 most common tickets into help articles. Skills Documentation · Content writing · Git · Confluence · JIRA · REST APIs · HTML5 · Agile methodology · Markdown and docs-as-code · API documentation (OpenAPI) · Style guides Projects Open-source guide Getting-started guide merged as the official guide for an open-source project. Education B.A., English Literature 2015 – 2018 Christ University · First class Languages English · Hindi
Interview questions to prepare
The app's interview prep for this sample and a plain Technical Writer posting. It works from the resume and the posting only, and tells you how to prepare, never what to say.
Questions every interview has
- Tell me about yourself. Two minutes: what you do now (Senior Technical Writer at Paylane Technologies), one result you are proud of, and why this role is next.
- Why do you want this job? Read their website and one recent piece of news before the call. Name something specific.
- Why are you leaving your current job? Say what you are moving towards. Do not criticise your employer.
- What is your notice period, and what salary are you expecting? Decide your number before the interview, so you are not deciding it on the call.
About the skills the job asks for
- Tell me about a time you used REST APIs. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Git. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used JIRA. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Confluence. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Content writing. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
- Tell me about a time you used Documentation. Pick one real example: what the problem was, what you did, and what changed.
About what the resume claims
- You wrote: "Rebuilt the payments API reference from OpenAPI specs with docs-as-code; integration tickets fell 35%." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
- You wrote: "Wrote the getting-started guide that cut median time to first API call from two days to three hours." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
- You wrote: "Own release notes for a monthly release train across four products." Expect three follow-ups: how exactly, what was your own part, and how you know it worked.
Questions to ask them
- What would a good first three months in this role look like?
- Who would I work with most closely?
- What are the next steps, and when should I expect to hear back?
Templates that suit this role
All of these are single-column and read cleanly by an applicant tracking system. Classic is free, with no watermark.
Questions
Do technical writers need to code?
Not to be hired, but reading code and using Git help a lot for developer documentation, which pays best. Learn enough to run the examples you document.
What should a technical writing portfolio include?
A how-to guide, a reference page and a conceptual explanation, ideally for real software. Open-source documentation is a good way for freshers to build one.
Next: the Technical Writer cover letter the app drafts from this resume, and how to show Documentation, REST APIs on a resume.
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