The pathway
How you actually get there, here
How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.
- 1
Junior Technical Writer / Documentation Specialist
2-3 yearsSkills to master
- Clear technical writing, content structuring, understanding of audience needs, basic content management system (CMS) usage.
You're ready to move on when
- You're consistently writing clear, accurate documentation that engineers find useful.
- You've started thinking about how content is organised, not just what's in it.
- You're comfortable working with engineers to extract information.
- 2
IT Support Engineer (with a focus on internal tools)
3-4 yearsSkills to master
- Troubleshooting internal systems, understanding user pain points, documenting solutions, familiarity with internal tools like Jira and Confluence.
You're ready to move on when
- You're often creating or improving internal knowledge base articles to deflect common support tickets.
- You've noticed patterns in 'can't find X' questions and have ideas for better organisation.
- You enjoy solving problems by making information more accessible.
- 3
Software Engineer (with an interest in developer experience)
2-4 yearsSkills to master
- Coding skills (Python), understanding of developer workflows, empathy for user experience, desire to improve internal tooling.
You're ready to move on when
- You've built or contributed to internal developer tools or documentation platforms.
- You're frustrated by poor internal documentation and have ideas on how to fix it.
- You're keen to apply your technical skills to improve information flow rather than product features.