On Tuesday, December 05, 2006, Lisa M. Bronson (TCP) wrote: > So, where are you at in your technical communication career? Are you in > management? If so, are you happy being a manager? If not, would you like > to be a manager? Is that one of your career goals?
I am a "marketing software product manager" and "manager of the software support group (SSG)". As product manager, I help define our software direction, set pricing, help to keep the ball rolling on software projects, draw up software site licenses, etc. We (SSG) are a group of 6. When software comes out of engineering, we do the initial alpha testing, provide feedback on the GUI, generally hammer out most of the obvious problems, and do all the paperwork to get the software products shipping out the door. We also provide customer support, training, and seem to get all the hard questions from our front line support, whether they are hardware or software related. Within the group, we all have our specialities. Mine was writing all the software and some hardware documentation. (I've hired someone to fill that role.) When our boss left last February, my first reaction was, "I don't want that job." My second reaction was, "Well, I don't want the job but I don't like the alternatives." And then, "I want the job, but don't think I can do the job my boss did." And then, "I don't have to do the job my boss did, I just have to do the best I can." Next thing I know, I was in an interview fighting for the position ;) I was worried that I would get into the job and hate it. I was wrong. I *like* being the "boss". I still do some product documentation -- one of the criteria for taking the job was that (at the request of the VP of Engineering) I keep the documentation for our datalogger operating systems. This keeps me doing some help development, and, hopefully, it ensures I don't lose my technical skills in regards to our dataloggers. I am very lucky that the personnel management side is minimal. The members of my group have been here 15, 10, 4, 5, and 3 years (the writer I hired was someone internally, so while help development was new to her, our products weren't). Everyone knows what they are doing, and they do it well with minimal intervention. And that's a good thing, because I have a lot to learn on the personnel management side :) Annual reviews are coming up, and they are *not* something I'm exactly looking forward to! Dana W. *************************** Dana Worley Software Product Manager/Manager, Software Support Group Campbell Scientific, Inc. Microsoft MVP, Windows Help ______________________________________________ Are you a Help Authoring Trainer or Consultant? Let clients find you at www.HAT.Matrix.com, the searchable HAT database based on Char James-Tanny's HAT Comparison Matrix. Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for details. Interested in Interactive 3D Documentation? Get the scoop at http://www.doc-u-motion.com -- your 3D documentation community. _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
