At local chapter meetings you will interact with professionals and potential employers in the field. Most meetings include a strong component of professional education as well, with an expert speaker discussing some topic important to technical communication. If you are a professional with a writing background or several years of work experience, you may want to supplement your experience with a course or certificate in technical writing. The ability to write well is important. You must be able to convey technical information clearly and succinctly.
Technical ability is also important.
You must be comfortable learning new software and publishing tools quickly. Employers also look for candidates who are familiar with one or more help-authoring tools. For example, a company that wants to create printed manuals will often specify that the applicant should know FrameMaker, although some ask for Word instead. Most online help jobs seem to use RoboHelp. Web-page creation is often done with FrontPage or Dreamweaver, although familiarity with HTML remains very useful.