Re: Customer Support Hat

["Dana Worley" <dana -at- campbellsci -dot- com>]

On Tuesday, May 09, 2006, Kimberly McClintock wrote: 

> Wonder how many of you have ever been responsible for taking support
> calls as well as being responsible for docs & web content. Seems like
> a natural hat to wear in a small group. I'm interviewing with a tiny
> start-up and interested in exploring all the ways in which I bring
> value.

I have been at my current job for 9 years. I was hired on as an 
"applications engineer" in the software support group. My 
responsibilities were to write help files & manuals, provide customer 
support for software (our group gets escalated calls from the 
"regular" AEs), training, and testing.

I love it. No two days are the same, and I am constantly learning. I 
am always doing something different. ( I would go crazy if all I did all 
day long was write. ) And, I am essentially an SME on our products 
(dataloggers & software) because I learn the product, do the writing, 
and share that knowledge.

As an aside, in February, the manager of our group retired and I 
applied for, and was promoted in to, his position. I hope to be doing 
a little less writing soon (I enjoy it but don't have time!) as I have just 
hired a new writer (actually, I added someone to our group who was 
already an employee with decent writing skills. There will be a 
documentation learning curve, but not a product learning curve, 
which in some ways is a much easier route).

While I'm sure a start-up will offer its own challenges (job security & 
tight budgets, for instance), I think you should consider it an 
opportunity to have interesting and rewarding work, and a chance to 
learn something new every day. 

Dana W.

***************************
Dana Worley
Manager, Software Support Group
Campbell Scientific, Inc. 
Microsoft MVP, Windows Help 2003-2006


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