Re: Should I be job hunting?

["Jane Bergen" <jbergen1 -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

> I have been working at my first tech writing job for nearly nine
months,
> writing end-user manuals for client/server systems. For the past
month or
> two, my supervisor has paid less and less attention to my projects,
> devoting his time to learning a brand new system our other tech
writer
> must document and effectively causing me to wonder most of the time
how to
> proceed with these problems:

(stuff deleted about vague deadline info)

> skills are not what I would prefer. He has asked me once this week
about
> what I am doing.
>
> My question is: should I be looking for another job, even after only
nine
> months on my first job?

My first question would be: What did you tell him when he asked about
what you were doing? Did you tell him (diplomatically, of course) your
concerns about where your project was going? Sounds like there may be
communication problems all the way around. Maybe you have, but your
message doesn't indicate what responsibility you've accepted for this
situation.

Time for action. Schedule a meeting, prepare for it by writing up
(yes, as a permanent record) a status report with your concerns, then
in the meeting pin down some dates (preferably in writing), and get
some feedback from your boss about goals for your project. Follow up
with a thank you email in which you restate the goals as he gave them
to you and how you plan to reach those goals. In the meantime,
document your concerns in your project notebook just to CYA in case it
does blow up.

Take the initiative here. Maybe your boss doesn't know much about
project planning. It's an opportunity for you to help out... show you
are serious about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jane Bergen, Technical Communication
jbergen1 -at- earthlink -dot- net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~