Professionalism and pay (was RE: 'Know thy audience')?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

If I got the attribution right, 'twas Ned Bedinger who wrote: <<If  
the STC has one goal, it should be to increase the perception of tech  
writers as professionals. (Employers don't want this. Professionals  
get paid more.)>>

In fact, STC is working hard to do just this. As a good first step,  
the current exec (Susan Burton) has submitted a revised U.S. standard  
occupational classification (SOC) description for our profession that  
makes it much clearer what we do, and makes it clearer that what we  
do is important. This won't have any immediate effect, but since  
personnel/HR departments use the SOC to classify employees, this will  
gradually improve the administrative perception of our profession as  
time goes by.

There are other initiatives underway by STC to improve employer  
education about our value, but in the end, success comes down to our  
individual efforts on behalf of each employer. Only when we  
demonstrate our worth to the people who make hiring and resourcing  
decisions will things change for the better. At a former employer, I  
quickly hit the ceiling for my original classification, but because  
I'd repeatedly demonstrated my value to senior managers, they were  
willing to reclassify me using one of the same (better paid)  
categories used for our SMEs so that I would have room to grow.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:  _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
home/onscreen-book.htm)

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