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Subject:RE: Career paths of lone technical writers From:"White, Bonita" <BWhite -at- CSXWT -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 8 Jan 2002 12:31:21 -0500
>In general, what's been your career path: mostly vertical or lateral?
Jay,
Right now I work for an international company and I am the lone TW. My
career path has been anything but limiting.
For the first year I was involved with little more than documentation. This
is the 27th day of my second year and my responsibilities have increased to
Business Analysis, actually being part of the team that flushed out the
requirements, database administration (I created an Access database for the
requirements), implementation of the software that will actually involve me
going to the client sites in the Dominican Republic and Hong Kong to insure
a smooth go live, QA analysis, and Professional Services. I am overwhelmed
and loving every minute of it!!! I worked my behind off when my "only"
responsibility was User Manuals and Training Guides--I completed 18 User
Guides, Spanish translations included, and 15 Training Manuals in six
months. And I am not complaining, I loved it. I love being a TW (My MA is
actually Scientific and Technical Communication--yes I was one of the few
who actually selected this as a career), but it was nice to see that upper
management thought that I could be utilized in many more places and
positions.
The upwardly mobile TW,
Bonita ;-)
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