Re: Career path

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

""bryan johnson"" <bryan -dot- johnson -at- motoman -dot- com> wrote in
message news:sd47fc4f -dot- 004 -at- motomail -dot- motoman -dot- com -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 

Hello gang,

I am faced with a fork in my career path and need some
input from greater minds than my own. I have been
working as a technical writer for the last five years.
In that time I have grown and taken on more and more
responsibilities. I've created and designed templates
for all of our manuals (i.e. hardware, software, and
maintenance), implemented help file creation using
WebWorks Publisher, created all artwork for every
manual, managed our intranet sites and several
storefronts, and acted as sole international liaison
for all documentation.

After a ridiculous amount of red tape and insistence
on my part, I was promoted to Sr. Technical Writer
with a whopping 4.5% pay increase! During this
process, they became aware of the many extra jobs I
fill that are not part of the Sr. Technical Writer job
description. So, they have now created a new position
entitled: Technical Communications Specialist. The
description for this job is the same as the Sr.
Technical Writer with many additional duties but at
the same pay.

So, my question is: Do I accept the new title? It
would mean more responsibility for the same pay.
Granted, I do the work now, but I'm not really
responsible for it :-) Big Difference!!
One the plus side, there is a Sr. Technical
Communications Specialist to advance to. But at a 4.5%
increase, that's hardly an incentive. Also, I'm
concerned about the title. I think everyone in the
industry has an idea as to the jobs and
responsibilities of a Sr. Technical Writer. But what
is a Technical Communications Specialist? If Technical
Communications Specialist appears on my resume, I
don't think future employers will be quite so
impressed.

> So anyway, thanks in advance for any insight and
guidance you can give.

Nobody who has a clue cares about your title. Its what
you can accomplish that matters. People who are
consumed with their title usually are that way because
they are essentially insecure, incapable people who
need the prestige of some title. I fired a sales guy
like this about a month ago. He was obsessed with
getting "Senior" in his title and regularly lied to
people saying he was an "executive" at the company. 
The only thing this guy was an executive of was the
toilet. He was without a doubt one of the least
competent sales people I have ever met and I was happy
to see him go. 

Take the dumb title and try to get some more money
from them. Focus on the $$$. Its what your really want
anyway.

Andrew Plato 


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