MaryKay has been a professional technical communicator for 38 years. She is a writer and editor and has ten years of team management experience. She is a Certified Professional Technical Communicator and an STC Fellow. She believes in the importance of communication in every facet of life and enjoys helping to demystify technical things. She considers herself to be a “problem preventer.” She currently is a User Assistance Development Architect at SAP and is a remote employee working with multiple global teams. She has presented at LavaCon, Spectrum, Leadership Days at STC Summits, STC Chicago meetings, other STC chapter meetings, and internal SAP conferences.

Spinning Words Into Gold: Helping Managers Recognize Your Value

After I was told outright that I could not get my next promotion for several years because the budget needed to go to the Developers, I spent the next four months proving my worth. In the end, I not only convinced a Dev Manager to spend his promotion budget on a technical communicator, but I landed a double promotion. If you’re not willing to take a back seat to the Developers and you’re ready to prove the value you bring to the team, then come join my session. I’m happy to share my secret with you!

In this session, you will learn how to prove the value they bring to the team and get what they deserve.

To do this I will give you tips on:

• Showing what you really do
• Showing before/after examples and comparison samples
• Using metrics to show how your deliverables help reduce support effort
• Getting outside feedback to validate quality
• Not waiting for that promotion… [asking for] insisting on it