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In Silicon Valley and other major tech centers it is not unusual to see
individual contributors of both genders making $100k or more in
direct-hire salary (I know because I've been the one signing the
papers to bring some of them onboard). But yes, most of those have
years of experience, and advanced technical degrees in fields related
to the subject matter being documented. And yes, if these very
senior people worked for me they did to some extent or another
have project lead responsibilities even if they didn't manage people.
During the slump of the early part of this decade many of them
saw reduced opportunities and some idle periods, but all of them
are still in the field and none have suffered significant reductions in
their earning power.
I think there will be a shortage of "highly qualified" technical
writers in coming years, but I don't think abandonment of the
field by today's "highly qualified" senior tech writers will be the
major factor, or even *a* major one. I think the major factors
will be (a) retirement (because most of the superstar writers I
know are in their 50's or older now) and (b) significant increases
in the technical requirements employers apply in defining what
constitutes a "highly qualified" technical writer. During the
dot-com years we often saw people we considered utterly
unqualified raking in absurd amounts of money to generate
the most rudimentary output; I think the pendulum is now
at the other extreme, and we will see companies demanding
unnecessarily extensive technical backgrounds for some time
before finally (I hope) arriving at a balance between technical
and communications skills.
> Contractors can definitely gross six-figures, but that is not commensurate with a salary. The journalist may not have understood
> that. (Contractors' expenses and benefits come out of their gross.)
>
> It's been a while since I've seen an STC salary survey. However, it seems to me that getting up around six figures required a
> combination of a large number of years of experience, an advanced degree, managing a large and/or distributed team, and being of
> the correct gender. (That ought to get the fingers flying.) 'Fess up, Candis, you had three of those four in that job as I
> remember. ;) And, because of the slide in the stature of the profession, highly paid TW jobs at any level are hard to come by,
> though the hassles remain the same.
>
> I hear that there will be a shortage of TW's in the future. I wonder what the profession will be like then. Some of the shortage
> will be generated by senior people who worked hard to leave the field as salaries, rates, and the professional stature of the
> field slid.
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