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>Can writers with the title "senior writer" give details about how they
>received this title?
Well, les'see, I applied for a job opening at one company, and when I got
the job offer it said "Senior Technical Writer" in the letter.
In 18 years of tech writing, my job titles have been (in order, changing
with each job):
* Aircraft Service Manuals Engineer
* Technical Writer
* Senior Technical Writer
* Technical Writer
* Senior Technical Writer
* Principle Technical Writer
* Technical Writer with a number, and I forget what the number is.
First job, how did one become a "Senior Aircraft Service Manuals Engineer?"
I never did figure that one out, but it appears it was based on age. No, not
amount of service time, but age. People would hit a certain age, they'd get
promoted to Senior to move into a higher pay bracket. Below that age, you
weren't even considered.
Still, it was my favorite job title, because of the misunderstanding
associated with it. I'd go out to the assembly line to check the docs vs.
actual aircraft being built. There would almost always be some guy on the
line who had done something on the aircraft that was somewhat out of
compliance with the blueprint, and he'd need an engineer to sign off on the
deviation. So there I'd be, looking at the airplane, when I'd be approached
by a production worker who would hand me a form to sign, and moments later
you'd hear the yelling as the line foreman would come running over screaming
"NO, NO, DON'T LET HIM SIGN! He's not THAT kind of engineer!"
--Rick Lippincott
Lockheed Martin
Saugus, MA
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