Reading the title might raise the following question in you: "No offence, but why the hell should I start writing?". It is a good question so let me answer it in detail. However some of the below-mentioned points are tailored towards technical writing, most of the topics are relevant to writing independently from the subject.
Why should I start writing articles?
Knowledge sharing is important Do not be the professional who knows everything but shares nothing. That would be a very sad life. Helping fellow colleagues with your knowledge is a great thing, but why would you stop there? Go one step further, share it with a wider audience. With your team, your company, your LinkedIn connections and last but not least share it with everyone.
You can become an expert
You do not have to be a rock-solid expert to write an article. Have you learnt something new recently? Is there a specific topic on your mind? Write an article about it.
In case you would like to write a good article, most probably you will research many sites, publications before/during doing that. By doing the research, formulating your own thoughts, questions about the topic you can learn new things and you can make your knowledge more solid. Based on my experience that is one of the best ways for self-improvement.
Writing is fun
I really enjoy writing, helping others makes me happy. Of course, the best is the case when you have internal motivation , not an external one. It is very easy to get addicted to writing. First I experienced it while I was writing my personal blog back then, and now I also started to feel it. I can't wait to get back to writing articles again and again.
It can start communication
In larger companies, it is quite usual that developer teams work completely separated not even knowing what technologies are used by other teams for the exact same purpose. However smoking did help a lot to talk with people from other teams and learn about technologies they use, I do not recommend starting smoking just because of that. 😊
A better solution is to write about the technologies you use , the daily struggles you face with. Seeing you are sharing your knowledge might inspire other teams to do the same. Or at least they can contact you to talk more about the topic.
You can get feedback
Feedback is everything. I remember the time when I was afraid of speaking in English as I was worried about making mistakes and embarrassing myself. But as soon as I persuaded myself to start speaking, I suddenly started to improve, way faster than before.
In case you show how you are doing stuff (like what test automation frameworks you use, how do you use them), you can get feedback on that, from which you can learn. In case you are sitting in your ivory tower you won't improve after a while. It is like only running an AI against itself, in order to improve it in playing a game. It is useful, but in case you do not run against other players in order to improve, it will miserably fail.
You can build new connections
Seeing you are interested in a topic will attract others having the same interests. Having a common interest is a good base for starting a professional relationship (or who knows in the end you might get new friends too).
You can showcase your expertise
Posting the certificate after you finished a course is great, but posting your own articles on the topic is even better. You can showcase your expertise to your current and future employers or clients. As the no.1 platform for professional connection building is LinkedIn, I highly recommend posting your articles on LinkedIn too (I will write on where and how to publish in an upcoming post).
You can find new colleagues
Showing your team has an up to date tech-stack and you are using cool frameworks (even if they are not mainstream), might inspire others to work in your team. I guess I do not have to explain why it is better to interview people who would like to work in your team, instead of random candidates. In addition, by writing tutorials about the used frameworks, it is more likely that the applicants will already have relevant knowledge.
Closing thoughts
I am pretty sure there are many other benefits of posting your own article, so in case you are an expert on the topic, please share the benefits missing from the list.
In case you started to play with the thought of writing your own article, you should read my advice about writing a good article in my upcoming piece.
Before leaving, I give you some homework:
📚 Think about what is the topic closest to your soul that makes your heart pump faster even by thinking about it? If you find it, I am pretty sure you cannot fail with writing an article about it. Share it with us in the comment section. 🧡
P.S.: Show your support by sharing this article in case you like it. 👍
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