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> Now, they did ask me if I would be willing to "help out" in customer
> service initially, but when I realized yesterday exactly how much time
> that would take, I started to panic a bit. I'm not a customer service
> type person, just a lowly techwriter trying to do a good job.
Sorry to be extremely blunt here, but with an attitude like that, you
get what you deserve. You say they won't pay for world class but want
world class documentation... What exactly does this mean? Are you a
full time employee there or a contractor or other?
> My next step is to find out who their main competitor is, and how many
> techwriters they have ~ presumably the software will have some
> similarities.
My company is 800 people large and we have 10 tech writers across the
globe. Our main competitor is over 2500 people large and has at least
40 people working on documentation.
Ratios are meaningless.
Prove your worth, do the hard work of proper project estimation and
management, and you'll have the data you need to justify yourself full
time on documentation as well as possibly another writer. And do pick
your head up. "Lowly technical writer" is disrespectful to all of us,
no matter how you use it.
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