Ask HN: I'm a good technical writer, and novice JavaScript dev. Where can I find a job?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9692109

by bnb • 11 years ago

33 22 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm a Communication and Information Design/Information Design and Technology student (third year), I am a good technical writer, and novice JavaScript programmer.

I have maintained my own JavaScript blog before, written a lot for io.js's Evangelism and Website Working Groups (now a part of the Node Foundation), and have worked professionally writing freelance for a prominent Node company.

I want to continue writing under commission or contract about Node/ES6/React for a suitable company, but I feel I need a mentor to help guide me in actually implementing JavaScript programs in practice, not in the individualized, modular way that posts are written.

How can I connect with companies that would fit this profile?

honest_joe• 11 years ago

Meet people, attend cons,events etc. You need to know and be known.

bnb4• 11 years ago

Are there places I can find lists of cons/events/meetups? Meetup.com is the only one I know of.

larrykubin• 11 years ago

lanyrd.com for conferences

bsima• 11 years ago

Maybe you could get involved with an open source project? PeerLibrary [1] is full-stack JavaScript/CoffeeScript and is really well put together. If you email Mitar [2] he can help you get set up, he's a super nice guy.

Or, maybe you don't need guidance, you just need to dive in.

[1] https://github.com/peerlibrary/peerlibrary

[2] https://github.com/mitar

NoMoreNicksLeft2• 11 years ago

Are you willing to move?

bnb4• 11 years ago

Stuck in the middle of nowhere, NY until I graduate with my Master's in Dec. 2017. So, most likely not.

NoMoreNicksLeft2• 11 years ago

Wonder if we could transfer you here... do you already have your undergrad, or are you in some sort of 5 year dual degree program?

cypher_glyph• 11 years ago

Does your college have any classes on Node.js?

bnb4• 11 years ago

That's sort of an oxymoron. I'd say that, unfortunately, 99% of colleges don't have any kind of server-side JavaScript class.

The closest that I can get to is a class that's half HTML+CSS and half WordPress. All other similar classes are Computer Science, and are languages like C++, C#, Java, and Python.

I know it's good to learn those, but I'm under a tight schedule in terms of credit hours, and can't afford to take extra classes outside of my curriculum.

christkv• 11 years ago

I know we are hiring technical writers. Primarily in New York although I think Palo Alto is an option as well.

http://t.co/9uZjQeSRdv

codezero• 11 years ago

Write the Docs has a bunch of meet ups and I've found that there are often people there looking to hire people like you :) it's also a good place to find a mentor and to learn more.

http://conf.writethedocs.org

JSeymourATL• 11 years ago

I feel I need a mentor to help guide me--

Jump on Linkedin's advanced search feature. Sort for profiles of graduates from your program. Alternatively, sort for tech writers in a market where you want to live & work. Build a list of 10-12 interesting profiles; then reach out to these people individually seeking advice. You may be surprised how receptive these folks will be to your email/call. You may also uncover some hidden job opportunities.

EGreg• 11 years ago

Well, we are company that is currently looking to work with a good technical writer. It could be a pretty exciting opportunity:

A startup with apps downloaded by 3 million people in 110 countries, and used over 2.5 million times a month.

An open-source platform (that makes heavy use of Node.js) with a social mission: to revolutionize social networking and put the power back into the hands of people and organizations the way Wordpress did for blogs.

We are currently building a portal for it at http://platform.qbix.com ... over half of the documentation has already been written, but by the developers. We are looking for someone with experience in evangelism and passion for our company's open source vision.

I'd be very happy to mentor you about JavaScript development principles. You can look at my posts on StackOverflow -- or better yet, the Javascript code (both client-side and node.js) on http://github.com/EGreg/Q to get a aense of my coding style. I've been coding in JS for over 10 years and I enjoy teaching and seeing people get better because of me :)

Anyway, if you are interested, visit http://qbix.com/about and drop me a line.

Greg Magarshak

petercooper2• 11 years ago

This wouldn't be a full time job - more a nice side gig - but if you're interested in working with us on editing and curating JavaScript Weekly and Node Weekly (over 100k subscribers in all) it might be worth chatting! :-) We have other JavaScript related content things we're hoping to expand into as well.

bengali3• 11 years ago

sounds like a nice gig for a growing resume, OP

bnb4• 11 years ago

I replied to him immediately. Thanks!

christiansmith• 11 years ago

We might be a good fit. At Anvil Research we need help with documentation, blog posts, tutorials, and user guides for Anvil Connect. It's an open source identity hub built with Node:

https://github.com/anvilresearch/connect

I'd love to speak with you. Please contact me (see profile).

kaa2102• 11 years ago

The best and worst ways to look for a job from What Color is Your Parachute 2015

Method, probability of success

Assess personal strengths and go on informational interviews, 86% *

Use the yellow pages, 65%

Ask for job leads, 33%

Knock on the door of an employer, office or manufacturing plant, 47%

State or federal employment office, 14%

Job club or Job Search Support Groups, 10%

Mailing out your resume to employers, 7%

Job boards in professional or trade journals, 7%

Employment agency or search firm, 5% to 28% est.

Answering local newspaper ads, 5% to 24% est.

Looking for employers' job-postings on the Internet, 4%

* This method is referred to as the What Color is Your Parachute method. I grossly oversimplified the methodology.

atmosx• 11 years ago

Digital Ocean recruits technical writers.

andrewsomething• 11 years ago

We do! We've got positions open for full-time in-house writers:

https://www.digitalocean.com/company/careers#technical-write...

We also run a program where we pay freelancers on a per-article basis:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/get-paid-to-write

mjhea0• 11 years ago

Contact me at michael at mherman dot org. I may be interested in hiring your for a number of content marketing pieces. Best!

Ask HN: I'm a good technical writer, and novice JavaScript dev. Where can I find a job?

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