RE: What department are you in?

[Angela Hill <ahill -at- wwg -dot- com>]

I used to work as the lone tech writer at a company of about 50 people,
where nearly everyone really believed in the products the company was
producing (we all used them at home).  I'm not sure I even had a department
at first, but I wound up with Product Marketing (probably because the person
who hired me ended up as that department's manager) which consisted of only
a Hardware Product Manager, a Software Product Manager, and myself.  The
Marketing/Communications department was completely separate.  When the
Product Marketing manager left shortly after I started as tech writer, the
three people in my department reported directly to the company's general
manager.

Since the people at the company were generally great and we all felt really
involved with the products, it didn't matter what my department title
was--the engineers included me in all of their meetings and emails and
encouraged me to contribute to QA, too.  I'm sure this was because I spent
about a year doing tech support for the products (and several prior years
using them), but I still think it's important to point out that this was a
great situation for me.  I operated with almost no managerial influence (I
strongly prefer managing myself) and enjoyed working with engineers who
really welcomed my input.

Depending on your team, it might not matter at all which department you're
in.  If it's up to you, I suggest that you choose the department with the
manager you'd most like to work with and then do your best to be involved
with all departments relevant to your work.

I hope others out there have had similar great experiences.

Angela
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angela Hill
The Windward Group
ahill -at- wwg -dot- com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~