Re: What's in a name?

[Suzette Seveny <suzette -dot- seveny -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Captain... it has possibilities!

I'm fortunate that my position resides in the R&D group now, so access to
information is getting better everyday! I'd love to have documentation
split up between new initiatives and maintenance of current projects - do
any companies do that?

Being involved in our user group forums (and sometimes leading them) allows
me to be right at the forefront of requirement gathering, but it makes it
difficult to find a suitable title.

Documentation Analyst?
Information Specialist?
Content Specialist?
Technical Content Specialist?



On Mon, Aug 9, 2021 at 11:02 PM Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
wrote:

> "Director" is generally a position with legal implications. Tech writers
> never get even a hint of being considered for "director-level" positions.
>
> Technical writing is often a "doesn't fit" compartment of an
> organization.
> We get left out and on our own, required to document things that we
> discovered just weeks or days before the intended shipment date. We are
> provided "latest" technical details drawn directly from the documentation
> of three years ago. It's sort of like being a ship at sea, blown about by
> the winds, or becalmed in muddy waters through no direct fault of our
> own.
> I recommend the catch-all title of "Captain."
>
> Yes, "Captain" has legal implications when at sea, but one can be captain
> of a rowboat, a canoe, or a Sunfish sailing dinghy and hardly anyone will
> complain. It is also the proper title to use for speaking to the skipper
> aboard a Maine "windjammer" schooner cruise, even though no authority has
> granted it.
>
> To defend the use of "Captain" merely point out that "Your Holiness" (or
> Her Holiness) seemed a bit too much.
>
> On Mon, 09 Aug 2021 22:18:50 -0400, Robert Lauriston
> <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > Director of technical documentation?
> >
> > High-level tech docs roles commonly spill over into other realms. I
> > don't think that means we need ambiguous titles about "content' or
> > "information."
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 9, 2021 at 4:45 PM Suzette Seveny <suzette -dot- seveny -at- gmail -dot- com>
>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> My title (and job description) is currently being reviewed to align more
> >> with my activities.
> >>
> >> I was a Technical Writer.
> >> Then they called me a Documentation Manager (I managed the process, and
> >> assumed a lead role).
> >>
> >> Now, in addition to "writing the online help and PDF manuals",
> >>
> >> I contribute to:
> >>
> >>    - Online help
> >>    - Video tutorials (more internal at present, but growing to include
> >>    customers)
> >>    - API documentation
> >>    - Knowledgebase
> >>    - FAQs
> >>    - User Group Sessions
> >>    - Almost a SME in Lending and Retail Banking (I had my mortgage agent
> >>    license)
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm not the only person in my department. We also have a technical
> >> writer
> >> (more junior) and a UI/UX designer. But I've been here long enough
> that
> >> my
> >> name is synonymous with client documentation.
> >>
> >> We have 14 subsystems with 3 add on modules. The work was all originally
> >> mine (until I had to go on stress leave lol).
> >>
> >> PS - Documentation Goddess and Protector of Information was considered
> >> too
> >> lengthy.
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