RE: Career paths of lone technical writers

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

My take on the situation is that you have 
these options:

1) Work for largish companies that have 
   actual documentation departments.
   In that case, you start as whatever 
   level they hire, and you get bumped 
   up on some seniority schedule or other, 
   but headroom depends on the ambitions 
   (or the health...) of the manager.
   The uphill climb can take years or 
   decades in a stable organization.
   In that situation, you are more likely 
   to achieve promotion by jumping between 
   companies or between divisions of really 
   big companies (that last option is also 
   nice in that you keep seniority and bennies).

2) Work for smallish, startup companies, 
   where you are the lone writer and where 
   you have all kinds of rapid promotion 
   prospects IF the company grows rapidly. 
   On the other hand, a company that stumbles 
   or a general economic slowdown can put you 
   in my position... hiring is frozen, and 
   my little helpers (and the beginning of 
   my doco empire) will not become a reality 
   until things take off again. Meanwhile, 
   pay and prospects stagnate, but pay is good 
   enough to discourage experimental hopping 
   to other companies. Hope economic upturn 
   comes soon, sez I...

3) Work as a lone contractor or freelancer. If you 
   handle your own marketing and other chores, 
   your limits are your abilities... and you'll 
   find you hit those limits early in your 
   career. After that point, all moves are 
   lateral. You can only perform just so much 
   work, and you get only so good at lining up 
   the next job... and then you run out of time 
   in a day. That's the cap on your dollars.

4) Do number three above, but then start sub-contracting 
   and turn yourself into an agency. Of course, 
   "promotion" comes at the cost of leaving writing 
   to others, and taking on management and sales 
   responsibilities full-time.  Beware the 
   discontinuity between the time that you need to 
   hire the first members of your stable and the time 
   that you have enough of them, and enough work 
   coming in to actually pay for you to be a full-
   time boss.  You can be CEO and work half days 
   (any twelve hours you choose...) and make less 
   take-home than your writers do, for several years.

5) Work for an agency as an employee, in which 
   case it becomes much like working for a 
   similar-size customer company, but you get 
   to jump around to a variety of assignments.
   You may enjoy a mix of working at your 
   company's premises and at the customer 
   premises.
   The agency may have enough depth to keep 
   you employed between assignnments. Your options 
   for promotion are similar to those in a 
   customer company that could support a department 
   of the same size. If somebody dies or ascends, 
   you have a chance to fill a position.  :-)
   
6) Work for an agency as a contractor, in 
   which case you don't get bennies, but you 
   may get more bucks in your pocket. Between 
   assignments, you don't have income. This may 
   not be the most attractive option, but it may 
   be all that they offer. You DO have more 
   scope for income-tax deductions.
   I'd bet that the promotion opportunities are 
   less in this situation because you tend to 
   spend most of your time away from the office 
   and thus away from the political whirl.

YMMV.

I'm on a s**t list, so this posting will be 
released only after a four-hour delay. So, 
others may have said the same things by then... :-)

/kevin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Malone, Jay Ms., RCI - Vienna
> [mailto:jmalone -at- ResourceConsultants -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 11:56 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Career paths of lone technical writers
> 
> 
> My upcoming annual review has me pondering my career path.  
> If you are or have been the lone technical writer either for 
> a project (I am now) or for a company (I have been), have you 
> found it career-limiting? In general, what's been your career 
> path: mostly vertical or lateral?  
 

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