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Subject:Help me get a raise! From:Jeremiah Gardner <Jeremiah -dot- Gardner -at- SCHWANS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 19 Feb 1999 10:26:25 -0600
Hello. I hold one of only two tech writing positions at a large frozen foods
company in Minnesota. I was hired five months ago. Technically, my job title
is Tech Writer I. My co-worker, whose job title was Tech Writer II, just
left for another job last week. The descriptions of each of our jobs are
basically the same except for the following facts:
a) the TW-II position assumes a more advanced understanding of the company,
the various software it uses, and the various PC applications we use to
produce documents and online Help.
b) the TW-II position is at a higher pay grade.
Well, since my co-worker left, I decided to apply for his TW-II position.
The new hire will most likely be labeled a TW-I. So the question for my boss
is whether to make me a TW-II or whether to make both positions TW-I.
The problem is my boss just took our company's tech writers and computer
trainers under his wing a month or so ago. He does not have a firm grasp of
what the tech writers do or how we go about doing it (the previous boss let
us work pretty independently so he doesn't know so much either). I've told
the new boss everything I can and have given honest appraisals of my own
skill levels. But he wants more objective information.
He is having the most difficulty in determining proficiency levels for the
tools I use to do my work. Among them are:
Word
Publisher
PaintShop Pro
Corel Draw and Photo-Paint
RoboHelp
FrontPage
PowerPoint
Visio
FullShot
Smooth Scaling
For example, he wants to be able to say: Can you do this basic thing with
Word? Can you do this intermediate thing with Word? Can you do this advanced
thing with Word?
Finally, my question: Can anyone offer suggestions or resources to which I
could point my boss? I know this is rather ridiculous, but the boss is the
boss.
Any help would be much appreciated. I only get the digest, so please respond
offline. Thanks.
Jeremiah Gardner
jeremiah -dot- gardner -at- schwans -dot- com
