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Our value as Tech Writers vs Trainers (saga of the corporate hobo)
Subject:Our value as Tech Writers vs Trainers (saga of the corporate hobo) From:dratndarn -at- hotmail -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 30 Sep 2003 16:34:26 -0600
As a tech writer who 'does it all' from users' job aids to developers
guides, from online help to white papers, I have long been part of the
grand shuffle of tech writers who get pingponged from dept to dept at each
job change or each company reorg. From the IS department, to the training
team, to the communications consulting firm, to the ecommerce team, to the
marketing department, to the client support group, back to the training
team. My work doesn't change much from place to place, but of course I
have to re-explain my work and re-sell my value to each new boss and each
new organization and define my particular niche in relation to their own
professional perspectives. Nothing new... not to me and I'm sure not to
you.
So here comes my question... I will soon find myself in a new department
with a new boss who is also new to the company--she's a training
consultant/manager with a focus on ROI. From what I've heard, she doesn't
have a lot of real exposure to tech writers. And, I know that there will
soon be cuts from among the large, newly combined training departments and
tech pubs group.
SO... I need to convey our unique value to her. It's been a while since
I've been in this situation (in a training group), but my experience has
been that trainers are showpeople who think of the fixed-media,
learning/performance deliverables as somewhat periferal to what they do.
And every trainer worth her salt develops instructional materials of one
form or another, but has an approach that comes from working
interpersonally rather than with impersonal print or other media. So, I'd
like to just pick your brains--how would you define our unique value
relative to instructional designers' value?
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