Which episodes of Star Trek TNG led to their writers becoming regular staff?

Question

Most TV episodes, and it seems so for TNG too, are written by existing writing staff, or come from freelance screenplays whose writers rarely, if ever contribute to the show again. Occasionally an outsider submits a script that makes enough of an impression to lead to the writer being hired as regular writing staff.

Two examples are The Bonding which led to the beginning of Ronald D. Moore's career, and The Measure Of A Man, whose writer Melinda M. Snodgrass became a writer and story editor for the show.

Which episodes are there?

Answer 1

Michael Piller

Episode 3x01, Evolution

Piller was called by one of the lead writers during Season 2 of TNG to write a few episodes; his first work, Evolution (the Opening of Season 3), and some subsequent episodes he wrote were appreciated so much that he eventually became one of the main writers and producers, not only in TNG but also in DS9 and VOY.
Some of the most appreciated episodes of the whole show, like Yesterday's Enterprise and especially The Best of both Worlds were written by him.

_{Reference: Memory Alpha}

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René Echevarria

Episode 3x16, The Offspring

Echevarria sent the unsolicited script for The Offspring while working as a waiter. He then become a regular writer for both TNG and DS9. Some of his most notable works for TNG are I, Borg, True Q, Face of the Enemy, Second Chances and Lower Decks.

_{Reference: Memory Alpha}

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Brannon Braga, Joe Menosky, Naren Shankar

These three writers joined TNG as interns during Season 4, and mostly had roles of story editors. Thus, they don't strictly have a single "first episode" that made the producers aware of their talents, but all of them afterwards had major writing and producing roles on TNG and subsequent series.

Some notable episodes:

• Braga: Cause and Effect, Timescape, Parallels, All Good Things...
• Menosky: Darmok, The Chase
• Shankar: The First Duty, The Quality of Life, Gambit

_{Reference: Memory Alpha - Braga - Menosky - Shankar}