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>We are trying to define what goes in to each level and what
>determines how you move to the next level. We are particularly
>interested in the qualifications for moving to Team Leader, as there
>can be only one leader per group. (The original proposal was for the technical
>writer to develop experience programming, but the software engineer
>had no requirements to learn about technical writing!)
Consider calling the final category "Lead Technical Writer" rather than
"Team Leader". You may find a few individuals who can climb your ladder
using their excellent technical skills rather than their management skills.
You may never want them to lead a team, but you certainly want to recognize
their contributions.
<snip some more stuff>
>P.S. At a previous job, I too had someone say that they were glad I
>wasd there to take notes. Much to their surprise, I took
>terrible notes (I made it a point to be active in the discussions and
>"forgot" to write things down). I was not asked to take notes again.
The engineering company I used to work for made it a point to include one
VERY junior engineer in all review meetings to take notes. Everybody
benefitted. Since they were generally too inexperienced to contribute a lot
to the review itself, these junior engineers (sometimes co-op students)
could concentrate on taking notes. They also learned a lot about the design,
about the review process, and about company-client politics!
They also had to ask a lot of questions to understand what they were
recording, forcing the rest of us to explain our designs more clearly.
Junior engineers usually can't take the shortcuts that more experienced
engineers can, so the notes were very detailed. Clients appreciated being
able to take these notes back to their management teams and have them
UNDERSTOOD.
Just my $0.02 (worth about $0.015 US)...
Win Day
Technical Writer/Editor
Email: winday -at- idirect -dot- com
