RE: What department are you in?

[kimber_miller -at- acs-inc -dot- com]

I'm on long-term with ACS (re-upped recently) as a contractor. I have always
been a part of the development team. While I do work on 2 projects for business
development, that effort is seen as "liaison" work and "synergy-enhancing"
between our devo and sales/marketing groups. While many days this work is the
most fun, challenging, and interesting, I would never be happy about being
aligned in marketing or in customer support, for that matter. I am certain that
in my current environment I'd lose credibility points. I need the proximity to
the source.

Interesting thread.

--Kimber
Who just survived a substantial RIF @
ACS-Dallas, TX USA
"Geek is Good!"

-----Original Message-----
From:   Jo Francis Byrd <jbyrd -at- byrdwrites -dot- com> 
Sent:   Wednesday, December 01, 1999 12:18 PM
To:     "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Cc:     TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Subject:        Re: What department are you in? 

I work only on contract, so my position is usually a little different. Normally
I'm the lone stranger at a company, reporting to a manager involved in the
product development, so I guess that could qualify as the development
department.

One place I worked, the tech writers were a part of the Training Department. Not
a happy place since our boss was strictly a trainer, a well-educated idiot who
did not understand what tech writers did, why we did it, why we'd want to be
tech writers and not trainers.

Another place, the tech writers were a part of MIS. A better situation,
especially once we managed to convince the MIS techies that just because we were
"just tech writers" didn't mean we were computer illiterates (I LOVED the day
when I told MIS our computers weren't working properly because we had the wrong
printer driver and they installed what turned out to be the correct one just to
prove I was an idiot who didn't know what she was talking about. They sat there,
stuttering, figurative egg dripping down their faces when the problems instantly
vanished. I was so gracious and sweet it was sickening. Not a single, "I told
you so, you bozos!" After that, though I had credibility).

Jo Byrd

Dan Caldwell wrote:

> Is there a particular department that tech writers get attached to when
> they're the only writer in a company? I recently joined a wireless telecom
> startup and found myself faced with the unexpected dilemma of "where do I
> belong?"
>
> In the past it was easy to fit into the engineering or development
> departments, but the nature my current setting is a little different in that
> "development" doesn't exist since our core product is wireless bandwidth. I'll
> be working with our customer service, marketing, IT, and sales departments to
> write and edit technical docs, publications, newsletters, manuals, and
> training materials for both internal and external customers.
>
> I'd like to hear from other "lone writers" out there. :)


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