RE: Where is the ceiling in TW?

[Brent -dot- Jones -at- Level3 -dot- com]

Habegger, Nolan wrote on Thursday, January 18, 2001 8:11 AM:

> 1. If you don't want to relocate, but you also don't want to 
> throw away all
> of your hard-earned experience, what would you (personally) 
> do to ensure
> your income increases? How would you continue to "be a 
> writer" and make more
> money than you're making now? What type of work would you 
> look for? In what
> industry? 

>From what recent threads have said, it sounds like either journalism,
teaching, or academia would be good bets <g>.

I would shift over to contracting. Very experienced, senior writers in my
locale (Denver/Boulder CO USA) can get anywhere from $80 to $120 an hour
(approximately 160,000 to 240,000 per year, although obviously sometimes you
don't work the entire year, and might have a week or two of downtime between
contracts); I would imagine other urban areas with a strong high-tech
concentration are similar. While the strong market we have now won't last
forever, it's probably not a bad idea to take advantage of it while it
lasts.

I think contract employees are in a better position to take advantage of the
current situation than salaried, or "direct" employees. While I have seen
the max rate for a contracting senior position shoot up from $60 an hour
three or four years ago to about $120 now, I haven't seen much of a rise at
all in senior "direct" position salaries.

Mind you, this is just a discussion of money--there are many other factors
to weigh in the whole direct vs. salaried decision. It's a very personal
choice.

[deletia]
 
> 3. If you are a "non-techie" writer who wants to keep writing instead
> becoming a programmer, where do you focus your job search? 
> What fields and
> what job titles?

I've found that incorporating information architecture skills in my
repertoire and resume has allowed me to come in at higher rates than I might
otherwise. Information architecture is part of what most of us do on a daily
basis anyway, but now that it's being recognized as a separate job
description that's very much in demand it pays to highlight your skills in
that area.

As far as fields go, I've found that telecomm companies are willing to pay
great money for experienced contract writers, and have been largely
unaffected by the meltdown that buried so many other high-tech companies
recently. I've always had a love/hate relationship with telecomm, because
that's where I make the big bucks, but I prefer working for smaller
software-centric companies.

FWIW,
cheers,
brent

--
Brent Jones
brent -dot- jones -at- level3 -dot- com 
"In the Kingdom of Boredom, I wear the royal sweatpants."
--Mark Leyner, _My Cousin My Gastroenterologist_

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