Olim and Technical Writing

Once upon a time, a company put out an advertisement that lasted all of 5 minutes before it was ridiculed out of existence. The ad said, “If you speak English, you can be a technical writer.” There is so much more to being a technical writer than needing a high level of English. Yes, if you plan to write in English, your level of English must not only be mother-tongue, but perhaps even higher. You have to have a very high command of the English language – but more, you have to understand how to write concisely, consistently, and correctly. You have to separate between style, culture, and proper use of terms.

Almost 10 years ago, we began considering opening our own courses. We were disappointed by the existing courses and the training our new employees were receiving and we finally decided, in 2005, to enter the field. Our technical writing course has not only set the standard, but has had a drastic impact on every other course (suddenly longer, more in-depth, changing the format of what they are offering, etc.). And yet, we continue to be the industry leader in the field of training new technical writers. Our graduates are working throughout the industry – including for almost all of our competitors! We view this as a measure of success and continue to plan new and exciting classes, keeping up with industry changes and demand.

Part of our process in accepting people to the course is attempting to explain not only what a technical writer does, but who should become one. For this reason, we were the first course to insist on an orientation session, personal interview and test. We want to make sure, at the end of the course, that you are as confident that you can enter this field as you were when you started the course.

We’re gearing up for our next course – starting at the end of  October. Again, we will have a no-obligation orientation session and meet with each potential attendee. We will explain the personality and skills you need to be a technical writer. A large portion of our attendees are new immigrants (defined as people who made aliyah in the last 10 years). There are several reasons for this:

  • After 10 years, many olim have successfully integrated into the country and may be able to work in a Hebrew-oriented job.
  • The cost of the course is subsidized by the Immigration Office (Misrad Haklita) for retraining. If you don’t use the subsidy before 10 years, you lose the right to it.  Many olim are happy to take advantage of this extra opportunity to gain a new skill while saving as much as 80% off the cost of the course.
  • Many people settle in a career and then either remain there or migrate to a related field; when you make aliyah, many new olim need to drastically change their career orientation.

If you are interested in joining our upcoming course – we hope you’ll join us this coming Thursday, September 20th at 10:00 a.m. to learn more about the field and the course. It is important that you come to this orientation session, even though there will be others, because applying to Misrad Haklita takes time. They require paperwork to be filed and decisions to be made. We help with every stage, but as you probably know by now, bureaucracy takes time.

To register for the orientation session (free, no obligation, etc.), write to vered@writepoint.com or call 02-571-6668