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

Subject: Re: Are technical writers not eligible for a good pay packet?
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 18:22:45 -0800 (PST)


> Sometimes it makes me furious when an interviewer says
> "For a technical writer, your salary is great".
>
> Why are technical communicators compared to programmers
> most of the time? Isn't technical communication as
> complicated as anything else? How would you handle this?

It has nothing to do with complexity of work. If you knew what most CEOs do all
day, you'd see that salary has little to do with work complexity.

What really affects wages is demand. There simply is not the demand for tech
writers as there are programmers. In my recruiting experience, we get 5 to 10
qualified writers for every one qualified engineer or developer.

Furthermore, many firms don't even bother hiring writers. They just outsource
their tech pubs entirely to firms like mine.

How would I handle this? If money is that big of an issue for you: learn how
to program.

Otherwise, deal with it. Just because you think you're worth x-dollars
doesn't mean the market will pay it.

Andrew Plato

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