Salary Question for the Dallas-Fort Worth Area - the Plot Thickens

[Anthony <italian_scribbles -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hello Again Everyone,

Thank you for all of the wonderful input you have been
giving.

I spoke with my manager yesterday and the situation
has changed considerably.  Essentially he initiated a
second conversation to let me know that the path for
the conversion to take place has been cleared and that
he realizes he caught me off guard with the initial
conversation as I was not expecting a conversion talk
for another month or two.  He asked if I would like to
discuss money, etc. further.  So I got a better idea
of the other components of the package and discovered
that he really is looking for my help to put together
a package ?that will keep me happy? so I will stay
with them in the long-term.  He will be traveling over
the next week and we will meet next week to discuss
the proposal I am putting together.

They have lost about four key people (in other types
of positions) over a period of 1 ½ months who left
simply over better offers and he made it clear that he
did not want that happening with me.  He said he hates
hiring on a contract-to-hire basis as it makes his
employees have a lack of certainty about their future
with the company.  He wants to agree on a figure that
is appropriate to someone of my experience and skill
set and gives me the certainty about my future with
the company that I do not currently have.  Further I
have made some practically impossible deadlines for
them and saved a multi-million dollar project my
second week here and this makes my negotiation power
very strong indeed.

The job itself would primarily be a technical writing
position with lots of online help as well as online
content, test cases, and user manuals.  Generating
training materials would be part of it with the chance
of doing sporadic training seminars.  Beyond the
technical side the company needs a full range of
marketing work including brochures, white papers,
trade show materials, RFPs, RFIs, and content for
their website.  This would be a very large component. 
Corporate communications would also be smaller portion
of the job.  It is more of a Training & Communications
Manager job rather than a lone Technical Writer.

My manager also spoke of the possibility of incentive
and bonus based plans.  I have heard of some writers
having this, but not many.

Are there any technical writers here who have a bonus
or incentive plan as a portion of their compensation
plan?

If yes, is this usually an amount of money on top of a
competitive salary or a component of the competitive
salary?  If a component, how much of one (e.g., 10%,
etc.)?

On what basis is it best to have your bonus or
incentive plan judged (e.g., deadlines, percentage of
completion, sales, etc.)?  Would this basis or other
details vary for marcom and/or training work?

For a short time I worked for Ericsson and found out
that they pay their employees overtime for anything
past 40 hours.  Would this be a likely bargaining
point given the small size of this company and
President Bush's rewritten rules for overtime.

Beyond compensation and the usual benefits package,
what other concessions might I consider that would be
beneficial to me as a technical writer?

Thanks for all of your input.

I?m going to start working on a proposal with
supporting evidence for our meeting next week.  I?ve
never done supporting evidence for something like
this, but given how completely in the dark they seem
to be I feel any proposal would have a very good
chance if the supporting data was given and
verifiable.

Thoughts?

- Anthony


		
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