Which field(s) of engineering do you talk about? What are the highest level(s) of promotion the persons who don't write well reach and continue to work in?
I would think that writing well is at least a requirement for promotion into a technical leadership role (above senior individual contributors).
By writing well, I don't mean in the style of journalists or novelists. Rather, writing clearly and concisely to effectively convey one's points and reasoning should be very valuable in engineering.
> Which field(s) of engineering do you talk about? What are the highest level(s) of promotion the persons who don't write well reach and continue to work in?
Electrical, computer, and SW.
I'm not saying communicating well is not needed. I'm saying writing well is not needed. What I've seen: A good presentation (including PPT skills) is much more valued than writing. Decisions are usually made because of them, not because someone wrote a good brief outlining positives/negatives. Emails longer than a few lines tend not to be read, so people don't focus on it. Documents are usually not read by many except those beneath them, etc. I almost never see a senior management write anything of substance unless it is required by Legal/HR - they'll always get an underling to write them (and no, writing them is not how underlings become senior management).
I'm not saying I like the state of affairs, but it is how I've seen it.
You must be joking, or else work with very low caliber people. I don’t consider people for positions who cannot write well, and certainly know that most successful people do write well. Really, can you take a poorly written engineering spec or RFP seriously?
Just in case you are serious, counterpoint for others who may not know, all forms of communication are very important to succeed and move up.
> You must be joking, or else work with very low caliber people.
They're only low caliber people when it comes to writing. Otherwise they're exceptional engineers. The company historically and currently is a market leader. We're not talking about a small shop.
> I don’t consider people for positions who cannot write well
And this is exactly what I'm talking about. If you're in a setting that values it, and set up filters for it, then of course writing is important. If you're in my company where it isn't valued, then not only is it not important, it has little benefit. No point in writing well if people aren't going to read it.
> Really, can you take a poorly written engineering spec or RFP seriously?
In the case of my company, yes - if you want to keep your job. Unless it's inscrutable, I can't go to my manager and refuse to work on something because the spec is poorly written. He'll immediately tell me to go contact the author and sort it out. Occasionally the author will be nice enough to fix the spec and release a new document. But it's hit and miss. The reason many don't fix the formal spec in these cases? Their managers don't value it.
Specs are for major efforts. At the intermediate level: "What the heck is a spec? We just communicate requirements via PPT."
> I don’t consider people for positions who cannot write well
But that is your personal preference enforced only where you personally can enforce it. That is not imply your decision making is typical for industry.
I've gotten lots of emails from bosses and bosses' bosses like "i semt the file,pls confirm." Few seem to care about writing well in the workplace. With psychological things like how talking like someone makes them like you more, I wouldn't be surprised if "proper" writing was a hinderance to career advancement in such a scenario.
That may not be a counter-argument, it's quite possible that upper-level management doesn't feel the need to impress 'the little people', and only sweats over documents that will be read by their peers.
I would think that writing well is at least a requirement for promotion into a technical leadership role (above senior individual contributors).
By writing well, I don't mean in the style of journalists or novelists. Rather, writing clearly and concisely to effectively convey one's points and reasoning should be very valuable in engineering.