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David Hailey wrote:
>> The technical communicator who understands the entire
>> collection of fields related to corporate communication and
>> who stays abreast of innovations in the profession can become
>> communications director.
Rob Hudson wrote:
> I'd love to hear examples of people who have done
> just that. What were their backgrounds? What were
> their career paths? What type of education did they have?
> In my narrow world view, I seldom see technical communicators
> rise to such heights. I am very interested to hear of people who
> have actually done so.
Maybe that narrow world view is the problem. Breadth of outlook is the
solution.
To put it another way, it isn't about "heights", it's about breadth.
While it is more likely that a Communications Director will be chosen from a
Marcom background than from a conventional technical writing background, it
remains absolutely true that a tech communicator who proactively finds ways
to help employers solve communications problems, creatively and effectively,
stands a much better chance of promotion than those who sit around doing
exactly what is expected of them.
Large organisations, especially, always need help managing change, and
targetted, effective communications are always needed to help drive it. We
can actively make ourselves a part of that effort, or we just can sit around
"documenting things" to no particular purpose and complaining about how
under-appreciated we are.
In my current job, I came on board as a user-assistance developer for an
enterprise software project a few months ago, and have recently been asked
to take on an expanded role with a much broader range of internal
communications issues involving staff training, change management, and the
interaction between the various IT groups and the rest of the business. In
previous jobs as well, my responsibilities expanded beyond software
documentation to encompass a range of external communications--print
advertising, white papers, Internet presence, and so on.
These opportunities are out there, everywhere, but we can't afford to wait
to be asked. We need to show our bosses -- and their bosses -- what we can
do to help them run their business, by our own initiative.
Of course, you have to know stuff to do this.
But then we need to keep learning new things to keep from going stark raving
mad.
My advice to Rob or others who want to see how "high" they can go is to get
as far away from the word "documentation" as they possibly can, as quickly
as they can. Make *communications* your profession, and your life-long
study, and you'll be surprised how quickly life improves. Banish the word
"documentation" from your vocabulary. It's s o last century.
Repeat after me: Documentation is yuck. Communication rocks.
--
Mike West
Melbourne, Australia
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