A Day in My Life as a Technical Content Writer at a Data Science Company
I asked ChatGPT to interview me on a day in my life as a technical content writer (technically, I’m called an Internal Journalist 😎) at Appsilon because… just because. Okay, so the thing is, I found this journal entry I wrote on a website 8 years ago, and it helped me reflect on how much I’ve grown as a person, and it reinforced my feelings on how writing is such a beautiful tool and gift and how it’s amazing that we can refer to the writings of people from several years ago and even identify with their thoughts and feelings…like philosophers or something.
Anyway, I wanted casual questions for this and maybe I could look back on this and laugh. So, let’s get started.
· Morning Routine
· Daily Workflow
· Writing Process
· Challenges and Solutions
· Learning and Development
· End of Day
· Reflection
· Wrapping Up
Morning Routine
What time do you typically start your day, and how do you begin your workday as a technical writer?
I work from home (ever grateful to Appsilon, tech, and the universe for this), so I start my day at 7 am. I get out of bed, look for the will to live (obviously not a morning person), and drag myself to have a shower because that’s my version of coffee in the morning (it helps me wake up), and then I start a Groove. There was this period where Groove would help me get out of bed from the beginning (grateful for all the kind people on there), but I guess I grew out of that, and my motivation has been escaping poverty…sorry, creating value. Okay, both. 😁
What are the first tasks you focus on when you start working?
The first task is to literally create my to-do list of tasks. At the start of the new week, we decide what we work on as a team (marketing team) and what we take on as individual contributors.
My tasks could vary from writing a blog post, reviewing a blog post, creating website copy, curating content for Appsilon’s weekly newsletter (Shiny Weekly), or doing some research or something else. My first task depends on what the day is, my priorities, team priorities, or company priorities.
Daily Workflow
Can you describe the types of projects or documents you usually work on during a typical day?
I work on blog posts, case studies, website copy, and, occasionally, video copy, but for the most part, I work on blog posts and case studies. I feel like something is missing from this list, but I can’t figure it out.
How do you prioritize your tasks? Do you have a specific method or tool for managing your workload?
I know there are fancy methods like the priority matrix thingy, but I’m usually too tired or overwhelmed to draw a matrix or even a straight line, so I have a to-do list, and then I highlight in a different color what is a must-do that day and then use a different color to highlight what’s a nice to do and then there’s everything else that’s left unmarked (they can wait till tomorrow or later).
Priority is based on deadlines, conversations I have with my team (mostly my awesome manager), and/or if it feeds into another person’s work, so it needs to be done urgently.
I know you’re supposed to eat the frog, but sometimes the frog eats me, so on a rough day where I don’t have something that’s particularly very urgent, I tackle smaller tasks, and that gives me the motivation to take on the bigger ones.
What kind of meetings do you usually attend, and how do they fit into your day?
I usually attend daily meetings with the marketing team; other times, I have meetings with the tech team, delivery team, sales team, or open-source team. Thankfully I don’t have too many meetings, I usually have about 4 at most which is rare so I have enough time to actually get things done.
How do you collaborate with other teams or stakeholders (e.g., developers, delivery managers, designers)?
Mostly Slack messages — with memes and emojis where necessary, collaborating async on docs, occasionally a huddle or Google Meet call, sometimes email. One time I asked a co-worker on the tech team if he’d prefer a very long message that would look like spam or we could do a huddle instead. We had a call, good choice on his part because I speak less than I write/type. 😂
Writing Process
How do you approach creating new documentation or updating existing content?
For creating a blog post, for example, the first step is doing research on my end about the topic so it’s easier for me to ask questions to experts on the team, especially if it’s something I don’t know about. Then I ask people on the team questions, gather all this info into a doc, do more research, find more resources, and put everything together. Every blog post on the Appsilon blog goes through a tech review (make sure the code is good and the post is technically sound overall) and a marketing review (basically editing, grammar fixes, rewording some sentences).
I think something I’m scared to confess now is I see a decent amount of AI-generated content on a daily basis, that now I fail to notice it sometimes because it’s normal to me, I guess? I don’t know. 😔
Anyway, after I’m done getting my ingredients for putting together the blog post, assembling them, and making the content stew, the post goes through a taste test, and then I receive feedback, fix things, and then present the stew to guests.
What tools or software do you use to write and manage documentation?
It’s me, Google, Docs, and LLMs against the world. I love experimenting with new tools, though. Appsilon encourages LLM use as long as we use them responsibly and completely avoid them in cases where we shouldn’t use AI. 💙
How much time do you spend on research versus writing?
It depends on what I’m writing and how much I know about it. Researching usually takes more time than actual writing, but sometimes I get anxious about how good the content is, so I edit and edit and edit, but I’ve come to learn from my manager that receiving immediate feedback is best. I’d say 2–3 hours researching; sometimes I ask people, so maybe a bit longer? And 2 hours on a first draft (luckily, Groove helps me track how fast time goes by), now the second edit…well, that takes longer.
Challenges and Solutions
What are the common challenges you face in your role, and how do you overcome them?
Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do, and not that I’m complaining, but some days it’s a lot. Usually fixed by asking for help, and my manager helps me prioritize what’s important.
Learning and Development
How do you stay updated on the latest industry trends or new technologies relevant to your work?
I follow folks on LinkedIn, interesting people like Veerle van Leemput for R and Shiny news, Nicolas Schmitz for what’s new in Life Sciences/Pharma, and Ben Straub also for Pharma-related topics. I don’t think he posts much, but he reacts and comments on interesting content.
Also, connecting with my co-workers on LinkedIn and seeing what they react to and post has been super helpful. There’s a fun post that comes to mind while typing this.
I knew the answer to this question. Maybe you could try?
You can check out the post for yourself if you like:
The conversations in the company Slack are always insightful and of course, curating Shiny Weekly, I need to see and share what’s new every week.
Of course, posts from the Appsilon blog, and I’m subscribed to R-Weekly and R-bloggers newsletters.
For what’s going on in AI/ML, I mostly get updates from LinkedIn and newsletters. I’m subscribed to a bunch that I can’t list now, maybe one day, but my favorite has been TLDR AI; it comes in other flavors, too, like TLDR Marketing.
Just remembered I gave a talk on continuous learning with Women in Tech Malawi:
Do you engage in any continuous learning or professional development activities related to technical writing?
Yes, I do. I recently completed a course on Maven by Amanda Natividad, “Content Marketing 201”. I’m subscribed to a couple of newsletters and read articles on content, marketing, and developer relations. When I have the time, I update them in this Technical Writing Resources list I put together. Again, I know I’ve mentioned my manager a few times already; my manager also tags me in cool stuff and sends me links.
End of Day
How do you typically wrap up your workday?
I go through my to-do list to see what I was able to accomplish and what I need to prioritize the next day. I put together my to-do list for the next day.
What I do after is usually around getting in bed (I love my bed, it’s my favorite place except when I’m sick, then it sucks), I figure out food, and then I work out, call family and friends, and then do other things like movies or something else. I’m always in the mood for memes.
What are your strategies for maintaining a work-life balance as a technical writer?
Take breaks when you need them. I don’t have anything else to say here, honestly, because I’m still figuring this out myself.
Reflection
What do you find most rewarding about being a technical writer?
I love learning new things. My role makes me interact with different teams, and I get to learn about the awesome projects being worked on, especially in life sciences/pharma, AI & ML, and the different tech stacks used to deliver projects. I used to think R/Shiny was a simple, rapid prototyping tool like Streamlit until…I mean, just check out the case studies, honestly.
I can’t say and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow but right now, I absolutely love my job, it sounds weird for me to confess but I truly appreciate that every week brings something new for me to learn and communicate about.
Especially considering I get bored very easily, but at Appsilon, it has never been boring because there’s always some new R/Shiny app or an app built with some other tech stack, life science project, awesome machine learning project, collaboration with a community like Pharmaverse (I have a blog post that will be published soon on the Pharmaverse blog 😊) or something else. I think it helps that these are all topics I’m fascinated by so even though some days are hard, I’m still happy to show up. Did you think I wouldn’t mention money here? I like getting paid; let’s also be realistic. 😂
How has your role evolved since you first started in this field?
Well, this started as a hobby, and then I freelanced and wrote blogs for this awesome AI publication called The Yuan (writing for them really kickstarted my interest in AI ethics and policies, especially from an African perspective ❤️) and Hit Subscribe (wonderful folks too!), and now I write full time for an awesome data science company (also grateful that Asiya tagged me in the Appsilon job opening post when I shared I was looking for a job ❤️).
Wrapping Up
That’s the interview, folks. If you made it to this point, thank you for reading! I’m not sure how to wrap this up; you can check out the blog posts I write at Appsilon, some are on this Medium account, and everything else is on my long-overdue-for-an-upgrade-but-does-the-work personal website.
I interviewed one of the awesome Delivery Managers at Appsilon over here; you can check that out if you like. Yes, the interview was the inspiration for this blog post. 😊
I’ll see you in my next blog post!
P.S.: I made final edits and read through this at around 11:48 pm; please don’t ask me why. Sorry if there are any typos or sentences that make no sense. 😆
