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Subject:RE: Maybe We (Don't) Need a New Job Title From:"Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM> To:"'Marc A. Santacroce'" <epubs -at- ricochet -dot- net>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 11 Apr 2000 12:33:16 -0400
And we're back to another age-old debate, the
"I'm-a-Writer-and-only-a-Writer" crowd versus the
"I-want-to-be-respected-like-the-programmers" crowd. If, in fact, writing
was all we did your comments would have merit and I'd be on board with
dropping the whole thread. I'm a Senior TW but I do GUI design, QA, analyze
business processes, help write procedures and specs, proofread marketing
materials, and coach staff in the intricacies of MS Office, among other
things. I don't mind that being my title (most of the time) and I'm lucky
to have the respect of my colleagues for all the skills I bring to the
table. But I understand the point of view that worries about it being too
limiting.
If you've ever run into the management groupthink that says Technical Writer
is synonymous with Clerk Typist (Make the document look pretty, please), or
are concerned that your long-term career path and interests in providing
maximum usability are restricted by the title, then you can understand the
original poster's concern.
If you still don't care, delete the messages, but don't jump on her because
she does care.
BTW-take a look at the job descriptions for Information Architect, they're
pretty interesting. Good TW's who don't want to restrict themselves to
writing only can look forward to those kinds of opportunities (if not the
title) as a potential career path.
MTC
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: Marc A. Santacroce [mailto:epubs -at- ricochet -dot- net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 10:50 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Maybe We (Don't) Need a New Job Title
Karen, I'm with you. I just returned from a Silicon valley job fair.
All the TW jobs (hundreds of them) were in fact looking for Technical
Writers. Doesn't this reek a little of Ed Norton (the Honeymooners)
calling himself a sanitation engineer?
Marc
>Can we please please PLEASE stop this nonsense about job titles? I am a
>technical writer. On my more flamboyant days, I call myself a technical
>communicator, but only to embrace the skills of my job that are not
directly
>related to writing, such as informal usability testing and layout design.
