Re: Are technical writers not eligible for a good pay packet?

["Elna Tymes" <etymes -at- lts -dot- com>]

The simplest answer is to point out what the market is paying. The problems with
that are (1) sometimes it's difficult to verify what the market is paying in
your area, and (2) sometimes recruiters believe that they know the market better
than you, and get offended at your attempts to tell them otherwise.   Your
option, of course, in that case is to walk away from that particular recruiter.

Verifying what the market is paying in your area is generally the tougher
problem.  There are national salary surveys that give you some ideas, but the
best way is to keep in touch with other tech writers in your area and informally
ask what going rates are.  Unless, of course, you happen to be in Silicon
Valley, where there are e-lists that give salaries (or rates, for contractors)
for open positions.

The notion that any tech writer should get less than any programmer is way
outdated.  In many jobs, the requirements of a tech writing job are surprising
close to - and in some cases overlap - the requirements of a programming job.
Granted, there are still some assignments where you simply describe what you see
on a screen.  But for the most part tech writing is about processes and writers
are expected to verify what they're describing, including describing the way the
process WOULD work if the software were working properly. This is way beyond the
skill levels of most administrative assistants.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems


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