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Re: Pecentage of techwriters in relation to other employees
Subject:Re: Pecentage of techwriters in relation to other employees From:"Cheverie, Paul [Cont]" <paul -dot- cheverie -at- GPO -dot- CANADA -dot- CDEV -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 14 Mar 1996 10:54:00 EST
I don't know what useful information you can gather from this request.
If you're on a job search, you'll get better information on what each
company has done and is doing by having a look at the output of new products
your target companies have managed in last few years and how much of that
new product is coupled with documentation. That will give you a better idea
of what their tech pubs requirements are.
If your trying to improve your situation in your present job I don't see
where a comparison to what others have done is going to help you. Maybe I'm
missing something here, but in my mind each company has its own organization
to fit its own needs as its own executive perceives them. All companies have
something in common, but none are similar enough in size, product, policy,
or management style to make a comparison of this sort valuable. Whether or
not one company has a higher ratio of writers to engineers than another one
is immaterial simply because each different company supplies the market
place with a different product and does so in a different way from all other
companies. If as a writer you feel overworked, then either you need to
consider a time management course or two, your company is in a short-term,
high-volume business cycle (and this too shall pass), or you are suffering
from chronic over-tasking and under-budgetting and you need to educate your
executive to your needs in regard to publications timelines and staffing for
your situation. A comparison of the staffing policies of other companies in
regard to the ratio of engineers to writers won't be of much help to you.
The logic here will probably be perceived by your executive to be that since
most cats have four legs it follows that most four-legged critters are cats.
A comparison to the number of writers/illustrators employed by companies to
the number and size of finished publications published per year of these
companies, however, might be of some use to you.
Paul C
paul -dot- cheverie -at- gpo -dot- canada -dot- cdev -dot- com,
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From: TECHWR-L
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject: Pecentage of techwriters in relation to other employees
Date: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 10:04AM
Does anyone have or know where I might get the following information:
Average or optimum number/percentage of techwriters in relation to
engineering employees and/or total employees at software firms.
Number/percentage of techwriters in relation to engineering or total
employees at some specific software firms.
