Professionalism and pay (was RE: 'Know thy audience')?

Subject: Professionalism and pay (was RE: 'Know thy audience')?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 14:35:49 -0400

If I got the attribution right, 'twas Ned Bedinger who wrote: <<If
the STC has one goal, it should be to increase the perception of tech
writers as professionals. (Employers don't want this. Professionals
get paid more.)>>

In fact, STC is working hard to do just this. As a good first step,
the current exec (Susan Burton) has submitted a revised U.S. standard
occupational classification (SOC) description for our profession that
makes it much clearer what we do, and makes it clearer that what we
do is important. This won't have any immediate effect, but since
personnel/HR departments use the SOC to classify employees, this will
gradually improve the administrative perception of our profession as
time goes by.

There are other initiatives underway by STC to improve employer
education about our value, but in the end, success comes down to our
individual efforts on behalf of each employer. Only when we
demonstrate our worth to the people who make hiring and resourcing
decisions will things change for the better. At a former employer, I
quickly hit the ceiling for my original classification, but because
I'd repeatedly demonstrated my value to senior managers, they were
willing to reclassify me using one of the same (better paid)
categories used for our SMEs so that I would have room to grow.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon: _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Professionalism and pay (was RE: 'Know thy audience'): From: Combs, Richard

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