Thomas, you’ve brought up a good point. There’s a lot of title-inflation out there that people think will boost self-esteem. For example, I was a bagger for an Albertson’s food store in high school, and they called us “courtesy clerks.” That didn’t change the fact that I was a bagger and janitor.

For technical communicators, I don’t think it’s a matter of self-confidence as much as it is the problem of being pigeonholed. Tom Johnson recently posted a good example of this. When people (read “managers”) have limited expectations about what you can do, they don’t give you opportunities to do more and expand your area of impact.

I am updating and revising the BIG manuals that accompany the main applications our company produces.

I write, edit, revise, analyze, and get screen grabs. The heavy editing is done. Now I’m trying to make the updated guide I’m working on look good.

My manager has mentioned video tutorials in passing — while look right at me — so I suppose that’s in my future AFTER I put this latest guide to bed.

I love refreshing older user guides, but I wouldn’t mind doing something a bit different.