Re: Help me get a raise!

[Heidi Martin <hcmartin -at- MCMS -dot- COM>]

Techwhirlers,
Please reply to this post on-list as well.

Jeremiah,
One place to start is the Radford Benchmark Salary Survey, although
their descriptions of Tech Writer levels 1-4 are rather broad and vague,
they are a starting point for writing job descriptions/summaries.  I am
currently writing descriptions & summaries for the positions in my
department, and would be very interested in any additional information
you find on this topic.

HTH and TIA,
Heidi Martin
Tech Comm Supervisor
MCMS, Inc.
Nampa, ID

>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Jeremiah Gardner [SMTP:Jeremiah -dot- Gardner -at- SCHWANS -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Friday, February 19, 1999 9:26 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Help me get a raise!
>
>Hello. I hold one of only two tech writing positions at a large frozen foods
>company in Minnesota. I was hired five months ago. Technically, my job title
>is Tech Writer I. My co-worker, whose job title was Tech Writer II, just
>left for another job last week. The descriptions of each of our jobs are
>basically the same except for the following facts:
>
>a) the TW-II position assumes a more advanced understanding of the company,
>the various software it uses, and the various PC applications we use to
>produce documents and online Help.
>b) the TW-II position is at a higher pay grade.
>
>Well, since my co-worker left, I decided to apply for his TW-II position.
>The new hire will most likely be labeled a TW-I. So the question for my boss
>is whether to make me a TW-II or whether to make both positions TW-I.
>
>The problem is my boss just took our company's tech writers and computer
>trainers under his wing a month or so ago. He does not have a firm grasp of
>what the tech writers do or how we go about doing it (the previous boss let
>us work pretty independently so he doesn't know so much either). I've told
>the new boss everything I can and have given honest appraisals of my own
>skill levels. But he wants more objective information.
>
>He is having the most difficulty in determining proficiency levels for the
>tools I use to do my work. Among them are:
>
>Word
>Publisher
>PaintShop Pro
>Corel Draw and Photo-Paint
>RoboHelp
>FrontPage
>PowerPoint
>Visio
>FullShot
>Smooth Scaling
>
>For example, he wants to be able to say: Can you do this basic thing with
>Word? Can you do this intermediate thing with Word? Can you do this advanced
>thing with Word?
>
>Finally, my question: Can anyone offer suggestions or resources to which I
>could point my boss? I know this is rather ridiculous, but the boss is the
>boss.
>
>Any help would be much appreciated. I only get the digest, so please respond
>offline. Thanks.
>
>Jeremiah Gardner
>jeremiah -dot- gardner -at- schwans -dot- com
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>
>
>

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=