RE: TW salaries

["Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com>]

M. David Orr writes:

> As we look for our place to rise, we may 
> need to acquire instructional design, 
> performance improvement, marketing, and 
> usability consulting skills. I believe we need 
> to move ourselves to the realm where we 
> deliver "solutions" based on business needs 
> to improve performance.


Well said. I agree that we need to be solution providers 
and usability experts. Just being technical specialists
who can use FrameMaker is not going to help us: 
there are enough of those around.

I have always seen my role as helping to ensure that
software products succeed in the marketplace, rather 
than  someone who writes manuals--and this approach 
has helped bring me many interesting and rewarding
career opportunities.

"Anything and everything that makes a product successful" 
is our proper sphere of influence as technical communicators--
not just document shuffling.

Sure, know your subject matter. But ultimately, what *we*  
know doesn't matter. Don't just be smart; be useful. Know 
your audience(s) and how to make them happy and productive. 

-- 
Michael West
Technical Writer
Melbourne, Australia



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