By Omar Melhem, Patrick Behrens, and Katie Tighe
Omar Melhem
How did your internship experience inform your understanding of technical communication workspaces?
“Technical communication” now has an expanded meaning to me. While I originally pictured communication with an audience, I’ve also come to realize just how much of the communication is with my team, too. Working entirely online was a new challenge, but it matured the way I work by encouraging me to stay as connected as possible. Communication became my paramount tool. By focusing on communication as much as I could, I was delighted to collaborate so closely with a variety of people at National Instruments (NI) all over the world, each with unique skills and experiences that they shared with me. I now have a deeper love for communication and staying connected to such a supportive and energizing workspace.
How did the technical communication internship shape your career trajectory?
I want technical communication and writing to be a critical part of my future endeavors. My goal is technology research, and I believe anything I do will be most meaningful and inspirational when I am able to write about it. I don’t only want to be a researcher—I want to be an author, as well. I am now certain that no matter what I end up doing, I must be able to author my own work to make my future accomplishments as influential as possible.
What did the company do to turn the internship into a valuable experience for you?
As an employee, I learned that NI excels in all forms of communication. Whether I was working with managers, developers, or other writers, any question I had was immediately met with guidance. I was granted insight into a wide range of skills, such as how to best tackle technological problems, collaborate with developers, or improve my overall technical writing skills. With the support of more experienced NI employees willing to share their knowledge with me, there was no challenge I could not overcome, ensuring a valuable and insightful summer experience with the company.
What skills did you learn during this internship that shaped your understanding of technical communication workspaces and the workplace in general?
I already knew how to explain concepts that I understand, but during this internship I also had to practice explaining what I don’t understand. I was the most recent addition to the team, completely new to concepts that everyone else had known for years. I was freshly exposed to software and tools that used coding languages I had never touched before. To create documentation, I had to consult developers and content experts about features that I didn’t know existed until five minutes prior. It was challenging to ask meaningful questions about new concepts because I didn’t have enough understanding about what would be meaningful to know. To get the information that I needed, I had to help others help me, learning the skill of being very precise about my needs so that I could receive the best support possible. Just saying “I don’t know” didn’t cut it—I needed to be more descriptive and say, “I don’t know this.” The ability to communicate in this way let me integrate myself into the dynamic workplace as a new team member.
What would you consider the most valuable experience of your internship so far?
My most valuable experience was the challenge. My goal is always growth so that I can make the biggest impact possible, and I believe I grow best when I have the inspiration for growth: challenge. I took this internship at NI because I wanted these positive challenges, and I received exactly what I came for. Any time I was faced a struggle, whether it was a difficult task, an error I made, or an unexpected complication, I had to push myself to reach out, learn new information, adjust my strategies, and ultimately grow so that I am more readily equipped for the future.
Patrick Behrens
How did your internship experience inform your understanding of technical communication workspaces?
Since the NI internship took place online, I had to think about how I presented myself digitally. I had to not only apply my technical communication knowledge to the content I created but also to my day-to-day interaction with my peers. I realized that I took a lot for granted in face-to-face communication. I had to ensure my language was concise and clear to communicate my thoughts effectively.
How did the technical communication internship shape your career trajectory?
My internship at NI opened my eyes to the flexibility of technical communication as a career. Technical communication does not necessitate being in the same location as colleagues. I always thought I’d end up in an office; working remotely, however, worked just as well (if not better) than working in an office. I found a lot of confidence in my abilities as a technical writer. I know I have places I need to grow (especially when it comes to learning how to communicate virtually), but NI gave me the energy and impetus to hone my craft.
What did the company do to turn the internship into a valuable experience for you?
NI did an amazing job at making interns feel welcome. I worked directly with my team. I was not just an intern; I had actual responsibilities. My documentation was not a menial task. My work was being published alongside my colleagues’ work in company documentation. I had full access to all the technology and experiences that my regular coworkers had. All of this made me feel like my efforts were valued. I felt like I mattered.
What skills did you learn during this internship that shaped your understanding of technical communication workspaces and the workplace
in general?
I had to adapt quickly when I started the NI internship. Attending classes at my university virtually is one thing; however, working in a virtual office space is different. I had to figure out how to interact with those around me. I was not in a place with my peers. I was working in a company where I was actively reporting to others, where I had deadlines that were not just essays.
What would you consider the most valuable experience of your internship so far?
I thoroughly enjoyed working on my overall project. I gained a lot of confidence from the freedom I had when I was doing my work. I had to talk to subject matter experts and developers frequently. The more I spoke with them, the more confident I grew in my abilities and knowledge.
Insights about NI Internships from Recruiter Katie Tighe
Technical communication internships are a great way to learn new skills and put skills learned in the classroom to the test in the real world. Many students wonder how to maximize their chances of getting an internship in this field, and while there is no one-size-fits-all answer, technical writing recruiters at NI have several tips for students who are interested in spending their summer with us.
Technical writing is a challenging job, and two writers at our company could work on vastly different projects in different toolchains. Additionally, deadlines, stakeholders, and scope are constantly changing for many of our projects at NI. Therefore, flexibility and adaptability are key skills for success, and we look for evidence of these traits in candidates who apply to our technical writing internship.
We also want to see evidence of attention to detail. Students can demonstrate this in their written application materials, editing test, and interview. Excellent writing and editing skills are an obvious prerequisite for any effective technical writer, but we also look for curiosity, willingness to learn, and the ability to ask insightful questions. Successful candidates can give and receive feedback with grace and can demonstrate initiative, teamwork, interest in technology, and interest in our company. Prior experience with markup or programming languages, writing and publishing tools, or content management systems is helpful but not required.
We evaluate applications holistically, so we encourage anyone who is wondering if their experience meets all of our requirements to think creatively about how to best highlight their skill set. Being in a technical communication program is a great start, but it is by no means the only indicator we look at—we hire students from all degree programs as long as they have the requisite skills. Our team consists of professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds who can articulate how their abilities translate to technical writing. Applicants should gather concrete evidence of projects they have completed, teams they have worked on, classes they have taken, or jobs they have held that would be relevant to a technical writing role.
At NI, we want interns to be exposed to the full range of experiences that a full-time technical writer would have, and this goes beyond working with subject matter experts to write and edit content. We also give them the opportunity to plan and manage projects, provide and receive peer feedback, and get involved in extracurricular activities like volunteering in the community.
We value our interns and the fresh insight that they bring to our teams and our work. We give them real projects and expose them to as much real-world experience as possible. Technical writing interns at NI have overhauled documentation sets, written new documents from scratch, evaluated and addressed content gaps, and more. We want to equip them with skills that they can carry over into the rest of their coursework and careers, and in return, their impact on NI lasts well beyond the summer.
Omar Melhem
Patrick Behrens
KATIE TIGHE (katie.tighe@ttu.edu) is a staff technical writer at NI, where she authors system documentation for transportation and semiconductor test applications. She is also a technical communication master’s student at Texas Tech University. Her research interests include editing, technical writing, organizational communication, and user-centered design.
