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Skills are not a tangible asset, therefore they don't have "worth" they
have value.
The value of a person to a company depends on many factors, many you
cannot control. There is only so much money available at a company to go
to salaries.
A decent company, with decent financial analysis is going to ration out
salaries. Skills that are hard to get will command higher salaries. Common
skills will cost less. All companies have core functions that are vital to
doing business. For a software company, this would be engineers who
develop the software.
A company's willingness to pay a certain salary generally hinges on their
need, their perception of value, and previous experience. A company that
values technical writers and perceives them as a critical part of the
company is naturally going to pay more than a place that considers tech
writers glorified secretaries.
This is why experience is so important. Every time a moron writer blows a
job, they destroy the confidence companies have in writers as a whole.
Some companies are savvy enough to differentiate between one crap writer
and an honest trend. But, many are not that well developed.
Therefore, the reason companies bid you at pathetic rates could be because
the last writer was a complete loser.
What makes a difference for you is what you bring to the table. Bartering
for a job is a process of exchange. You are exchanging your skills and
experience for money. The more you bring to the table, the more valuable
you are. Mostly, the more you can justify your salary. Sure, you can
demand $99 an hour with only a smattering of skills, but that doesn't mean
you will get it. Likewise, companies can demand a senior genius for
$10.00 an hour, doesn't mean they will get it.
A decent company will hire and pay based on skill. But remember, what a
company needs might not align with your skills. Some places want writers
who are information mapping freaks and don't care one bit about anything
else. Therefore, they are going to value such skills much higher than any
other skill. Other places will look at your technical skills and value
them highly. You can argue about what skills are more valuable than others
- but the crux of the issue is: are your skills valuable to companies.
This hinges on the gatekeepers at these companies. Some places have
blithering idiots at the helm and generally want to surround themselves
with even bigger blithering idiots. So they create a lot of sound a fury
to make themselves sound big an important and place downward pressure on
salary. They'll tell you things like "all the technical writers here have
PhDs." They do this so you will be intimidated and lower your salary. It
usually works. Most people will take gatekeepers at their word.
Other places have skilled people up top and they want skilled people below
them. They are not going to be easily fooled by smoke and mirrors from job
candidates. Others, like myself, place a huge price tag on enthusiasm. I
can teach people FrameMaker - I cannot teach somebody to be motivated to
succeed.
What is valuable depends highly on the place you apply. You cannot expect
every company to share the exact same values. Some places will not be
impressed one tiny iota that you can make vector graphics. Others will.
Its all a matter of demand and need. If you're skills are in demand, you
can make good money selling them to companies.
Andrew Plato
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