Volunteering and Side Gigs

Volunteering and side gigs are great ways to make connections and expand your skills as a technical writer. However, unpaid work isn't always a worthwhile investment. As skilled professionals, it's important to seek out opportunities that align with our career goals and values. Join us as we discuss how to approach volunteering for open source projects, taking on side work as a technical writer, and more.

Here are some questions to get us started:

• How many of us currently use our technical writing skills in a volunteer capacity? What kinds of projects are we involved in?
• What’s the best way to find high-quality volunteer opportunities?
• How do you balance volunteer work with paid work? What about conflicts of interest?
• What are the advantages of volunteering our technical writing skills? What are the disadvantages?
• Has volunteer work ever led to a job? What's the best way to highlight it on a resume or in a job interview?
• For those with open source experience, how did you become involved? What makes a good open source contribution?
• What qualities should we look for in an open source project to determine whether it is worth contributing to?

Our Code of Conduct applies to all our community spaces.

We'll use Zoom for this meetup. Register to receive the Zoom link here in the event description. Then, when you log in to Zoom for the event, be sure that your Zoom name matches the name you used in your registration.

Want to get notifications about our events? You’ll find instructions in the “About” section of the home page for this meetup.