[IxDA Discuss] Back to the Career Path Question...What if you are the only one?

[Pam Migliore]

 I've gotten WAY behind in my digests and am just now getting to the thread
on Career Paths.

The question I have for the group is what are the opportunities for
growth/promotion/etc. when you are the only "You" in the company?

My current *title* is "UI Designer."  My responsibilities range from writing
UI Specifications for embedded software to defining user interactions, to
performing user studies and testing, to empowering engineers to become more
customer-centric.  I am nested within a development organization and work
closely with Product Marketing but report to the Director of Engineering.

I am the only person within the company doing this type of work with no
prospects of additional team members in the foreseable future.  I have been
in this same situation at other companies and have struggled with "what
happens next?"

Do I keep tacking various titles of seniority to the beginning of my title,
even when there aren't "junior" people with related titles?  Similarly, I
don't really fit into any of the established "tracks."

At my last company, I was a member of a development team within an internal
IT department (we built tools other employees used daily.)  My manager
promoted me onto a specific track (business analyst, with accompanying job
titles) because he didn't know where else to put me.  That proved difficult
because my title and job description had nothing to do with my actual
responsibilities and it became difficult to rank me against my *peers* when
promotion/raise time came around.

I'd be interested to hear from others who work for product-focused
companies/internal IT shops who have similar experiences.
-- 
Pamela Migliore
UI Designer