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Subject:Changing jobs in to superv/mgmt positions? From:"Race, Paul D" <racepa -at- WHQPOS4B -dot- DAYTONOH -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 2 Sep 1995 00:21:21 -0600
Well, gang, time to start a new thread. My company is getting ready to dump
writers by the dozens here, and, while I brush up my resume, I have a
question that some of you may be able to relate to.
I have fifteen years as a tech-doc-specialist of one sort or another, a good
half of which has been in supervisory roles. But when I go job-hunting, 90%
of the people interested in talking to me are hoping to bring me in at the
new-hire level, and give me a bunch of stuff about me having to "learn the
ropes" and work my way up through their organization, as though tech writing
for one computer company is THAT different than tech-writing for another
computer company.
I've pretty well decided that I'll have to look for other kinds of careers
if I don't want to take a huge cut in pay, but I thought I'd ask the rest of
you what your experience had been.
Have ANY of you ever changed companies and gone directly into a position
with supervisory responsibilities? And if so, how did you
A: Find the job, and
B: Position yourself so they wouldn't just throw you the entry-level
crumbs?
If you respond personally, I'll try to summarize for everyone else so we
don't clog the lines TOO bad.
BTW, this concerns my earlier question, "How important is it for a technical
writer to have technical knowledge?" The answers hovered around CRITICAL
with one or two key exceptions of people who claimed they could learn
anything fast enough to get by or that the ability to learn quickly was even
more important.
Finally, I would never dream of posting a note asking for JOB LEADS here.
If I were to do anything so foolish, I might also mention that I am looking
chiefly in the Dayton/Columbus OH and Nashville TN area. Heaven forbid that
I would request that anybody knowing of any openings for senior-level
communicators, marketing program developers, documentation project leaders,
course developers, or technical trainers in either area would e-mail me
privately to keep me from getting in TOO much trouble. :-)
