FWD: Will it hurt my career to take a lower-level job for a while?

[Anonymous User <anonfwd -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

I have been working as a documentation group manager and project manager
for about 10 years. During that time, I passed up a chance for a
promotion to a section manager to take an interesting job in another
company. It didn't work out as I had hoped, and because of that, I
have stayed at the group manager level for longer than I had planned.

Now I want to move to northern California, an area with which I'm
not familiar. I can transfer with my
company, but the only available job is that of senior technical writer.
I have a lot of experience writing, and I enjoy it, but I am sure I
would not be happy doing this for a long time; I really like being
a manager.

My question is: do you think that if I work as a senior writer for a
while, it will hurt me when I go job-hunting again and try to find a
manager position? Will people look at my resume and see only that I
have appeared to stay at the same level for a long time, and then
actually moved down a level? Or are jobs plentiful enough in Silicon
Valley that my experience will be strong enough?

Some people advise me that I should not take the transfer, even though it
would pay for my move, be a guarantee of employment, and probably be a lot
of fun for at least a while. Others think I can explain the situation
easily enough when it is time to move on. I'm not sure.


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