Increase Your Salary by Writing - Grow your Personal Network, Get Recognized, Be Ready for Future Promotions

Improving one's writing skills is an important aspect of career development in the field of Information Technology. Gaining recognition for knowledge in your field as well as the ability to effectively communicate to a wide range of other parties will set you apart from your peers.

I was introduced to the idea of climbing the corporate ladder through writing while at Intel. One common theme among the rising stars and seasoned pro's was participation in creating white papers, documentation and training materials that would further the organization as a whole.

Recognition was gained through the distribution of their written material, requests for updates/additional information, as well as company sponsored travel to present findings for other sites. This changes the old adage "It's not what you know but who you know" to "It's not what you know but who knows you know it".

As the story often goes, I didn't learn from the seasoned pros like I should have. I wasn't a writer and still support that thought. Only my stubborn nature and the need to have content in steady supply for a web development project started the ball rolling. Writing is a learning experience for me which progresses slowly with subtle, sometimes unnoticeable benefits. It's not apparent until I look at a broad picture of where writing has taken me to.

Writing has brought me closer to an ever growing online community of IT Professionals, strengthened my knowledge through criticism and the desire to lend a hand when my experience can be of use. Though my writing is often unstructured, I have learned (again through criticism) to make content more understandable, to be able to write for the reader and convey my message more accurately. I have been able to develop skills needed to advanced my career past System Administration while building contacts that can offer valuable advice and/or speak highly of me when I'm ready to take the next step.

Ed Tittel's "Soft Skills in Writing Can Boost Any Software Developer's Career Profile" talks about what one gains as well as ways to boost your writing ability. Take a course, read a book, take on writing tasks, practicing, and listening to feedback are all discussed as ways to be a better writer. This is priceless as it's written by someone who has been there, is now an accomplished writer and can still relate to those of us who are just starting out, somehow. The idea's in his article go beyond software development, even IT in general. If you are looking to advanced your career, these are skills you should be working on.

There are many similar articles out there, as it is good advice. My respect for the author is behind me highlighting this particular one. It seems that he always provides the kind of advice that only someone who's been there could with the confidence that makes you immediately feel better.